Breaking Point
by April Rane
Summary: Everyone knows something has to change, but what do you do when you don't know if you're fighting on the right side anymore? Everyone has a breaking point. Rating for adult situations, language, violence. Canon, Post BD. R/R Rating Change
1. Prologue & Decision

"_None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." _

—_Gothe_

_**Prologue**_

"_It wasn't something I'd thought about doing. It wasn't planned. I felt a sudden rage, and it consumed me—it was all I felt. I lost my control. I cannot tell you all that happened, as the memories are still unclear to me. I can tell you, however, that after it was done, I felt different. For the first time in two hundred years, I was my own man again. I felt as if I had been shackled, and that those shackles had been cut. Everything that held me to everything I knew was gone. She was gone, and I was free. I began to wonder what that feeling of freedom meant, and the farther I ran, the more I realized that that was not the life I was meant to lead."_

"_Do you regret what you did?"_

"_Not for a second."_

**CHAPTER 1—DECISION**

The room was very quiet as Aro read over the parchment in his hands yet again. By now, they all knew what it said, what it meant for the future of the Cullen family, and what Aro thought it meant for them.

"There must be something," Caius muttered, still pacing quickly back and forth. "This has to violate something."

Aro shook his head slowly. "We have no rules about this, my brother. We know so little of the hybrids, in any case, that we are scarcely in any shape to create rules for them. Perhaps if you had not been so hasty in your destruction of Joham, we would know more of them."

"We know enough," Caius growled. "Enough to know that if this is allowed, it will only give the Cullens more allies and more power. Aro, they could destroy us! The threat this constitutes is large."

A wispy sigh escaped from Aro's lips, and he tossed the wedding announcement to the floor. "The wolves are already allied to the Cullens, Caius, as I'm sure you've considered."

"But marriage!" Caius snatched the expensive paper from where Aro had tossed it. "It cannot be allowed! Imagine if they were to have children, Aro. Imagine _that_ threat, if you will!"

Felix stared down at the floor. He did not understand why Aro and Caius viewed the Cullens as such a threat. Certainly, their coven was a large one, and very powerful, and their allies outnumbered the Volturi guard, but he could not see why the Cullen family would decide to challenge the Volturi. In the ten years that had passed since the birth of Renesmee Cullen, the family had not once given the Volturi leaders any reason to fear them. In fact, they'd not really heard from them at all until an announcement for the wedding of Jacob Black and Renesmee Cullen arrived.

Next to him, Demetri also seemed to be paying little attention to the proceedings. His eyes were focused on a fixed point on a wall just over where Jane stood on the opposite side of the tower room. He followed his friend's gaze, and found nothing of interest, but his eye caught sight of Chelsea where she stood next to Jane. She was frowning at the floor, seeming to be concentrating. She was doing a lot of that lately. Behind her, her mate, Afton, rested his hands on her shoulders. Felix felt a pang of jealousy as he watched Afton's hands slide down Chelsea's arms to wrap around her waist from behind. Why should he be allowed a mate when the rest of them lived their lives alone?

The sound of Caius's hiss broke Felix from his reverie, and he looked up. "The Cullens must be destroyed, Aro. You know this."

Aro sighed again. "I fear that you are correct, my brother. Their coven continues to grow, but they continue to live in the human charade. It is a threat to our way of life, so many vampires living openly as they do."

Caius smiled darkly. "I knew you would find a reason, Aro."

Several of the other guard members shifted uncomfortably, muttering to each other and themselves.

"To think it has come to this," Demetri said, quietly enough that only Felix could hear him.

"What is their crime?" Felix breathed. "They live even more cautiously than we do, with numbers smaller than ours, and we are going to punish them? I don't understand."

Across the room, Jane's clear voice rang out above the others, silencing them. "We must plan this carefully, masters. We cannot forget that they have many allies and that they have the one who sees the future."

Aro nodded gravely. "We must take great care to think quickly."

Out of the corner of his eye, Felix saw Demetri's face harden again, and he wondered what his friend was thinking.

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The breeze that came in through the open window was soothing on Jacob Black's heated skin. He was exhausted—it was well past three in the morning—but he couldn't sleep. Leah's birthday party had been a wonderful excuse to take the next day off from work, and he had had more fun than he had in a long time as he sat around with his old friends, drinking and laughing and making complete idiots of themselves with Wii bowling. What had been the icing on the cake was that, even though she was tired, Renesmee had managed to wake herself up when he got home and had given him his own private party.

Now, she lay on her stomach, her bronze curls fanning out in every direction, and Jacob stared down at her in wonder. She was beautiful. It was like she had been created for him alone. One long, slender leg hung out from under the sheet, and her back was bare to her waist, where the sheet was bunched up. He could just make out the curve of her breast, and her lavender eyelids fluttered slightly, but did not open, when he ran his hand over it.

One month ago, after going to each member of her family individually to ask for their blessings, Jacob had planned the most lavish weekend in New York for the two of them. Two nights at the Plaza, and dinner at an expensive restaurant that boasted the best steak in the city. He sent her off to a spa for the day and set up the hotel room while she was gone, then met her at the restaurant. That first night, when they had arrived to the hotel, he spoiled her with even more attention and a box of her favorite chocolate before relaxing in bed with her and watching _When Harry Met Sally_. Halfway through, right when Meg Ryan was in the middle of a fake orgasm, Jacob heard a gasp next to him.

Under a chocolate covered caramel was an ornate ring, encrusted with diamonds and sapphires. She had cried blissful tears as Jacob had taken the ring from her and slid it on her finger, asking her to marry him, and had accepted at once.

Now, a month later, she had moved out of her family's massive mansion, down a lane about a mile to the smaller house, built by Esme, where Jacob had lived alone since the move to New Hampshire three years ago. He worked every day and came home to find her in the kitchen putting dinner on the table, waiting to hear about every insignificant detail of his day. She slept in his bed every night, and in just two more months, she would be his wife. A tribute to her sense of humor, Renesmee had selected the twentieth of June as the wedding date. Jacob hadn't understood until a giggling Bella informed him that the twentieth was Edward's human birthday, something he tried to get by every year as uneventfully as possible.

Jacob watched as she rolled over onto her side, exposing her body to him, and he was just about to try to rouse her when he heard a buzzing. Frowning, Jacob rolled over to retrieve his phone. _Bella Cell_ was lit up on the tiny screen, and he grimaced as he answered. "Hey, Bells, what's up?"

"Jacob?" Her voice sounded shaky. "Are you with Nessie right now?"

He frowned. "Yeah, she's asleep." The lavender lids fluttered and opened to reveal groggy brown eyes. "Or she was. She's awake now. Did you need to talk to her?"

She didn't exactly answer his question. "Can you both come up to the house?"

Something in her voice, which Renesmee could hear, alerted the youngest member of the Cullen family and she snatched the phone from Jacob. "Mom? What's wrong?"

He heard Bella's response, and it sent him flying out of bed and throwing clothes to Renesmee, something he never did. _Alice saw something. The Volturi have made a decision..._ He didn't hear the rest. He was throwing on the first clothes his hands touched and Renesmee was scrambling into her own, now wide awake. They did not speak—there wasn't time, and there weren't words. Jacob didn't need Renesmee's gift to understand the terror she was feeling.

Hand in hand, they raced up to the house, halting at the front door. It was lit from top to bottom, but it was completely silent. The silence was foreboding, and Jacob did not relax at all when they entered the dining room, where everyone was seated around the massive table.

At the head, Carlisle was holding Esme's hand, both of their faces worried. Next to Esme, Edward stared at Alice's blank face across the table, where she sat next to an almost equally blank Jasper. Bella held Edward's hand, staring at his face, concentrating deeply. Rosalie was glaring at Emmett, who was messing with his Blackberry, as unconcerned as ever. They took the empty seats, Jacob sitting next to Emmett and Renesmee next to her mother. Once they were seated, Carlisle took a deep, unnecessary breath.

"Alice has seen a vision of the Volturi," he began, and Rosalie took the Blackberry away from Emmett, putting it in her pocket with a scowl. "They have finally found reason to eliminate us, and with proper reasoning, it could possibly work."

"They've had ten years," Emmett said, frowning. "What could they possibly have come up with now?"

It was Edward who answered, his eyes still trained on Alice, whose mind was clearly across the ocean. "They have decided that our size is already too large for as openly as we live, and that Jacob and Renesmee's marriage may constitute a new risk."

Emmett's frown deepened. "He's already been here for ten years. What's changed?"

"Aro is _concerned_," Edward sneered the word, "that if they have children, our numbers will be large enough to draw enough attention to us to expose us. And they don't know what kind of children they would produce." He shifted in his chair, clearly uncomfortable with this part of the conversation.

It was silent for a moment, before Rosalie spoke. "They won't get away with it," she said firmly. "Everyone knows that the Volturi feel threatened by us. No one will fall for this."

"They have enough friends that they could exterminate us easily if they so wished," Carlisle said quietly. "It would be so simple. They are prepared for what we are capable of. They know our strengths and our weaknesses."

"They also know that _we_ have friends," Esme said hopefully. "When will they arrive?"

"That's the thing that doesn't make sense." Edward's face was frustrated as he stared at Alice, reading her thoughts. "They've made no plans. There is only the decision that we must be destroyed. And so much of what is going on is fuzzy right now."

Alice's eyes cleared and she snapped back to the room, looking as frustrated as her brother. "Someone is going to happen to deter them," she said. "I can't see what, though. It's as if _that_ particular decision has not been made yet. The good news is that this gives us more time to contact our friends and have them at the ready."

Carlisle nodded. "We should start making calls tonight," he said. "Everyone who stood with us last time. Anyone we could not get a hold of."

"And Nahuel." Renesmee spoke for the first time. Her eyes were tight. "He'll be on our side, and he can bring his sisters. They have not forgiven the Volturi for Joham." Everyone winced, recalling the sudden destruction of Joham and the rage it had created from his daughters, who were left with no explanation. "He'll bring his aunt, as well. I can call him in the morning."

"And the other wolves," Jacob said. "Seth and Leah are still phasing. I think some of the others are, too. Whoever is still phasing can come to help."

"This is different, though," Jasper said. "We know that they come to destroy. We may not get everyone this time."

"What if we got something on the Volturi?" Bella's voice was thoughtful. "If we could prove that their intentions are only the result of feeling threatened, would it make a difference?"

"If you can get some member of the guard to come forward and tell everyone that that was the case, you'd have most of the vampire world on our side, but it's not going to happen." Jasper frowned. "And we can't really sneak into Volterra. They'd notice."

"What about Eleazar?" Esme was still hopeful. "Maybe he is still on good terms with someone who would be willing to help us."

"No good," Edward said, shaking his head. "If Aro suspects anyone's disloyalty, he can just have Chelsea focus that much harder to discourage them."

"We'll think of something," Emmett said. "We got out of this last time and nobody thought we could. We can pull it off again."

Edward sighed. "Let's hope so." He smiled over at Renesmee. "I'd imagine you would like to go back to sleep?"

Renesmee smiled drowsily. "I'll call Nahuel first thing in the morning. He can get a hold of the Amazons for us, too. And there's also some rumor going around about a hybrid in the south somewhere. Nobody knows her, but I guess she's there."

Edward frowned. "I hadn't heard that."

A wry smile crossed her face. "You're not a hybrid."

"No." A hopeful look crossed Edward's face. "I suppose this means we'll have to push the wedding date back." Renesmee arched an eyebrow at her father, and he frowned. "Just as stubborn as your mother," he muttered.

Bella grinned. "That's my girl."

_a/n I didn't want to mess up my crazed __italicizing__ at the beginning to put this at the top, so it's on the bottom. I've got several ideas for where this can go and a good idea of where I want it to end, but if you have any suggestions, let me know. Everything's canon, everybody's the way they are in the books. This starts in April about ten years after the end of _Breaking Dawn_. Let me know what you think so far. I'll try to update as much as I can between homework and everything else. _

_DISCLAIMER: Not mine. I'm a broke student. I own nothing, let alone _Twilight_._


	2. Voyages Begin

_a/n Okay, so I'm really sick right now and I'm to that point where I'm too sick to sleep, so I'm just going to write. Updates don't normally come this quickly, just so you're aware._

**CHAPTER 2—VOYAGES BEGIN **

Felix was starting to become truly concerned about Demetri. His friend was acting supremely odd, isolating himself and disappearing into the city for long intervals of time. He was aware of Caius's annoyance on this part, as he needed Demetri right now. That was what had Felix wandering the streets of Volterra at one in the morning searching for his friend. Demetri's skill as a tracker was making him difficult to find—he'd covered his scent fairly well. Aro had recommended that Felix take Chelsea with him to find the other vampire, and Felix knew better than to refuse.

They wandered the streets in silence, neither speaking to the other except when they came across Demetri's scent from time to time. It had been hours. Was he even in the city anymore? If felt as if they had searched every alley, every crevice, for him.

Just as Felix was beginning to think that his friend had found a stream and swum away, Demetri's scent hit him hard. He was close.

"This way," he said gruffly, grabbing Chelsea by the elbow and dragging her down a dark street.

Halfway down an alley, Demetri's scent seemed to go up, and Felix leapt to the top of the abandoned building, leaving Chelsea staring after him.

Demetri was sitting alone, staring off into the night sky. It was very dark—there was no moon. Still, Felix could perfectly see every feature of Demetri's face. His face was completely blank, but there was fire burning in his eyes. Felix took a step back, startled. He'd never seen this cold anger in Demetri before.

"Why is she here?" he asked softly.

Felix stared, startled into momentary silence. He recovered quickly. "Aro requested that she accompany me. I guess he thought she'd be useful in helping to find you."

Demetri nodded. "I see." He did not elaborate. When he stayed silent, Felix turned, glancing over the ledge of the roof to signal Chelsea that Demetri was here.

She hopped gracefully to the roof and landed next to Felix. She frowned at Demetri. "What are you doing here?" she asked forcefully. "You were not given permission to leave for such an extended time."

Demetri turned to Felix. "Could you leave us for a while please?" he asked, and his voice was unexpectedly curtious. "I would like to speak with Chelsea alone."

Felix frowned, but nodded. "Should I go back?"

"If you wish."

But Felix did not go back. He continued to wander the streets, contemplating his life here. There was no question of leaving, not now at least. Maybe after all this mess with the Cullens was over, maybe _then_ Aro would let him.

He half hoped that something would happen that would stop them from having to go to the United States and take out the Cullens. He had a certain strange fondness for them that he could not understand, and he knew that this fondness bothered Aro. It bothered him, as well. Perhaps it was because the few fleeting memories of his human life he retained were ones of family. He remembered that he'd had a big family, that they were very close. The Cullens were so united and so fiercely protective of each other. They were a real family, not just a coven.

Something strange was happening inside Felix at that moment. He had never before had the inclination to leave Volterra—had never been able to, with Chelsea around. He suddenly felt like he could run across Europe, across Asia, swim every ocean, and feel completely free. It was very odd.

A stinging scent pulled at his nostrils, and if Felix were still human, he would have thrown up in the alley. He was running back across the city before he was even aware of it, not bothering to run at human speed across the rooftops and through the alleys.

Something was wrong.

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"This is insane," Nahuel muttered for the hundredth time. "If she doesn't want to be found, she doesn't want to be found."

"You don't know that," Renesmee said, leaning over the wheel of her Jaguar to look for the dirt lane she needed. "There." She pointed to a small lane. "That has to be it."

Nahuel muttered something in Portuguese that she didn't catch, but it sounded like insults and annoyances.

The last two weeks had seen Nahuel and Renesmee running all over the southern United States in pursuit of a rumored hybrid that no one seemed to know anything about. It had been searching for a needle in a haystack. They'd watched for unexplained deaths in all the papers, finding little, and had finally would up in southern Texas, going on a lead of several deaths that looked to be the work of a serial killer. What they had found had nearly sent Renesmee running back to New Hampshire, but Nahuel, tired and annoyed and refusing to have spent ten days running in circles for nothing, had been the one to go speak to Maria. Renesmee had followed timidly, and Maria had laughed when Nahuel had introduced them.

"Not _the_ Renesmee Cullen," she'd laughed. "Really?"

She had nodded nervously, unable to speak.

"Give my regards to your uncle," she'd chuckled. She'd then proceeded to give them directions to a house outside Port Mansfield, Texas, on the Gulf coast. She promised that they would find a half vampire named Alma Thomas living alone in a tiny house.

"Alma will never admit it, but she owes me a lot more than knowing where she is," Maria had said. "She owes me her life. I found her when she was still a newborn. She'd just killed off her mother and was too small to do anything for herself. I couldn't figure out what in God's name she was for the longest time, but she fed like a vampire and looked like a human, so I figured out through research that she was both. It was strange. I tried to raise her, but she got rebellious in the seventies and struck out on her own."

"How old is she?" Nahuel had asked.

"She was born in 1945. I found her right after your uncle left, actually. She could have been a nice replacement." Maria had sighed. "Too bad. She had so much promise."

The little house was exactly where Maria had said it was. An old Chevy truck was parked outside in front of a little shed. Renesmee parked the car behind it and climbed out, looking up at the little house. Really, it was more like a small, very rustic lodge. She felt supremely out of place in Jimmy Choo and Calvin Klein, but she made her way carefully up to the door. She was about to knock when she heard a _thwack_ from somewhere behind the house. She frowned at Nahuel. "What was that?"

"No idea."

Before she could go ahead with her knock, she heard someone whoop with glee. "Ever seen it go that far?"

"How many of those have you had?"

"Not enough. Toss me another ball."

They followed the voices far back to the edge of the property, and Renesmee gasped. They were looking over the Gulf of Mexico, and the sunset behind them was dancing on the waves, making the colors change. A tall woman in Daisy Dukes and a plaid fitted button up shirt was focusing very hard on a beer bottle that had been wedged down into the sand. On the mouth of the bottle was a golf ball, and the woman was wielding a driver. Between the pointer and middle fingers of her left hand was a cigarette, and a radio behind her was blaring seventies music. She didn't move for a second, then her arms came back and she smoothly swung the club, smacking the ball with another loud _thwack_, and she watched it fly out into the gulf.

"I'll be damned," she said sarcastically, not looking away from the water. "I believe that's farther than you've hit it, Miss Emma." She turned then, and caught sight of Nahuel and Renesmee staring at her with open mouths. She frowned. "Y'all lost?"

"Um." It was all Renesmee could say.

"If y'all are lost, just go north. Cities are up there." The tall woman frowned, tossing her blond pony tail over her shoulder.

Renesmee shook her head. "Are you Alma?"

The woman froze. She did not move for over a minute before she spoke. "What do you want?"

"My name is Renesmee Cullen, and this is my friend, Nahuel," she blurted quickly. "We came to find you. I think that maybe you can help us, if you're willing that is. We don't want to force—"

"Can you please get to the point?" Alma's voice was suddenly harsh.

Renesmee stared, gawking, at Alma. She was _not_ what Renesmee had expected in any way, and it was throwing the cultured, groomed girl. She looked at Nahuel for help.

"I apologize," Nahuel said, allowing his accent to come out a bit heavier than usual. "My friend is flustered at the moment. I'm sure you can understand." He winked at her, and Alma put down the driver and reached for a beer, seeming to relax a bit. "She is in a great trouble, you see. Nessie and I have a great deal in common with you."

"The heartbeat, you mean." The voice came from behind them, and they turned to see the other girl, Emma, sitting in a lawn chair with her feet propped out in front of her. Renesmee hadn't noticed her before, as she was sitting back slightly, in the shade. Her long, dark hair was tied into twin braids that hung over her shoulders, and her long, pale legs peeked out from under a cotton skirt. Her eyes were ruby red, and she was beautiful. It was immediately clear that she was a vampire.

"You're half and half, too," she said, and her smile was kind. "You see, Alma? I told you the stories were true."

"Whatever." Alma sat down on the sand and stared up Nahuel. "So you're like me. You came a long way just to figure that out. Or did you have other reasons?"

Nahuel smiled. "We did. I'm sure you know of the Volturi," he said, and when they both nodded, he continued. "Ten years ago, the Volturi attempted to destroy Renesmee's family, as they thought that she was an immortal child."

"Damned fools," Alma muttered. She took another swig of her beer. "I heard about that. Think they're all knowing, like nothing can stop them 'cause they're always right."

"Yes," he continued. "They quickly realized their fault and left at once, but we've been fearing for years that they would find some reason to destroy the Cullens another way."

"Why?" Emma's brow furrowed. "I've never met them, but I've never heard anyone speak ill of them. Not once. On the contrary, everyone says that they are quiet civilized and wonderful people."

"Yes, but they are quite large. The size is a threat to the Volturi, though they would never think of challenging them for the power. That doesn't mean that the Volturi aren't paranoid that they would do just that." Nahuel sat down across from Alma. "Now they have a reason. Renesmee is getting married," he explained, "and they feel that the increase in size would threaten them further."

"Because she's getting married," Alma said, nodding toward where Renesmee stood, still quiet.

"Yes."

"That's horse shit," she said simply.

"They don't see it that way." Renesmee found her voice. "They think that if I were to have children it would violate some right of immortality, or something stupid like that, and they don't know what kind of children I would have, and they don't want to take that risk. Or at least, that's the excuse they're making."

"Wouldn't you just have half vampire babies?" Emma seemed confused. "I mean, both of you are half vampires."

Renesmee felt her face heat up as Emma looked between her and Nahuel. "No! He's not who I'm marrying." Nahuel's chuckles slowly turned into a full out laugh as she turned a darker shade of red. "It's not funny, Nahuel. Shut up."

"I'm sorry," he said, burring his mouth in his hand. "You're right. Not funny."

"So where is your boy?" Alma asked.

"He's trying to get his pack brothers together to come to New Hampshire," she said, her face still burning. "He's a shape shifter."

"Shape shifter?" Alma stood back up, walking over and taking another golf ball from a huge bag at Emma's feet before reaching for the driver. "I don't follow you."

"It's a long story," Nahuel said, managing to quell his laughter. "Perhaps if you come back with us, we can tell you on the way."

Alma mounted the ball in a manner that made it clear how unconcerned she was with their story. "I'm sorry," she said, as she took her stance, "but I only look out for myself. It doesn't do good to stick your neck out for others that you don't know for something you've got nothing to do with." She swung the club again and the ball sailed out into the water.

Nahuel's laughter had stopped by now, and he frowned. "You don't care that her family's been marked for death for a bogus reason?"

"It's not that I don't care," Alma said, mounting another ball, "it's just that it's got nothing to do with me."

Renesmee felt indignant tears burn in her eyes. "This does have something to do with you! They could get away with this just because so many are ignorant of us! The Volturi don't understand us, and they've never tried. What would happen if this spins out of control and they decide that all of us need to be destroyed? They've tried that angle before, you know. It almost worked. You could be dead right now if it weren't for Nahuel and my family, and you're just going to sit down here like a cowardly redneck, drinking beer and hitting golf balls!" She swiped under her eyes. "I hope you can sleep at night, knowing that my only crime was being born, and that I am the same as you in so many ways, except for the fact that I have a conscience." Turning, she stomped off, tripping over her shoes in the sand as she went, but she did not stop.

Nahuel stood and followed her without a word.

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Alma continued smacking golf balls long after Emma went home several hours later. She hit harder than usual, but she knew it wasn't a sudden burst of skill that caused the strength that coursed through her muscles.

Alma was almost completely immune to guilt trips, and she could recognize them from miles away. Maria had spent the first fifteen years of her life guilting her into this and that before she finally had enough of it and left. On the surface, the Cullen girl's outburst seemed like a guilt trip. But the harder she hit and the longer she thought, the more uneasy she became. She knew what it was that had inspired the outburst, had seen a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye, just before she stormed off.

She was terrified.

She was young, Alma knew. Only ten years old. _So_ young. Alma set up another ball and hit it so hard that the glass on the bottle cracked. She scowled down at it before shoving the driver back into the bag. She was back at the house in seconds, and stalked to the shed, popping the trunk of her Nissan and tossing the clubs in. Fifteen minutes later, she added a duffel bag trunk before climbing into the drivers seat and, glowering, set off for her destination.

"'Cowardly redneck' my ass."

_A/n I'm still sick. Review or something, and it'll make me better._


	3. Going and Coming

_A/n Hello! Be forewarned—this is one of those unfortunate, yet necessary, filler chapters. Not a ton happens, so keep an eye out for updates. There is some explanation in this, though. Sorry—it was necessary._

**CHAPTER 3—GOING AND COMING **

Felix ran. He could not remember ever running so fast in Volterra, but when he reached the place where he had left Demetri, he found that it was not enough. He was gone. And the building was on fire. It may have looked ordinary to a human, and Demetri had done this well—Felix could smell gasoline. He could also smell the heavy scent, like too much incense burning, see purple in the smoke of the fire.

The feeling of freedom, of being able to run anywhere, made sense now. He felt it because, for some unknown reason, Demetri had seen it fit to destroy Chelsea. Demetri was gone, and his scent was hard to follow. Felix debated for a moment before he heard someone running toward him, too fast to be human, but too slow to be Demetri.

Heidi came to an instant stop next to him, gasping as she looked up at the burning building. "What did you do?" she gasped.

"I didn't do anything!" Felix said indignantly, trying to block out the pops and fizzles and sounds of sirens in the distance. "Well, I left Demetri alone for ten minutes, but I hardly see how that makes this my fault."

"Demetri did this?" Heidi stared at the fire, sniffing. "Why?"

"I don't know. He just said he wanted to speak to Chelsea alone, and I—"

"Demetri killed Chelsea." Heidi stared blankly at the fire again. "She's dead?"

"Unless she has some talent escaping fire that none of us knows about, then yes. But I don't understand why."

Heidi turned her head, glancing back to where the sound of sirens was getting louder. She grasped Felix's arms tightly. "Felix," she said desperately, "there isn't much time. They'll realize I'm gone soon, and they'll come looking for me. Do you want to stay in Volterra?"

Felix blinked, and remembered the longing to run as fast as he could, as far away from Volterra as he could. He thought for half a second before shaking his head. "No."

"Then run with me."

They ran.

They ran for hours, tracking through as many rivers and lakes as they could, up through Italy, through France, across the channel, and up into England before slowing down. Felix watched as the landscapes changed—the Tuscan part of Italy, the mountains, the cliffs, the green rolling hills of northern England. Heidi finally stopped running somewhere in Scotland as the light began to come over the hills.

"We should feed," she said quietly. She glanced over the landscape and her eyes focused on a beat up looking house at the bottom of a hill.

Inside was only one man, passed out with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He put up no fight, made no sound, when they killed him, and Heidi set about finding different clothes. She emerged in a pair of beat up men's jeans and a plaid shirt. They didn't fit well, but she was less conspicuous than she had been in the cloak.

As they sat in front of the fire a little while later, Felix said quietly, "I wonder where he went."

"I don't know," Heidi said slowly. "He won't have been the only one to leave. One minute, everything was fine and everyone was normal. Then it was like a snap and arguments were breaking out and everyone was yelling, fighting..." She trailed off. "I wanted to look for him, but there wasn't time." She put her head in her hands and Felix knew that if she could, she would be crying.

"Heidi?" Felix crossed to sit next to her. "What's wrong?"

"Where are we supposed to go?" she asked brokenly. "We couldn't stay—Aro would have known what we were thinking so fast and he would have destroyed either of us."

"You don't know that."

Heidi shuddered. "Don't I?"

Felix stared. "What happened?"

Heidi stared into the flames. "It was Santiago. He started yelling about leaving, going to the Cullens to tell them the truth. He wasn't half way to the door before Caius got to him." She shook again. "I ran as fast as I could. I jumped out the closest window and ran before they could notice I was gone. It was like the second Chelsea was gone, everyone went mad. I thought it was only me, but..." She buried her face again.

"Heidi, what are you talking about?"

"How many of us truly wanted to join, Felix?" Heidi's voice was muffled by her hands. "Alec and Jane and Chelsea, maybe a few others, but the rest of us? She made me feel like I had no other options, nowhere else to go. And everything I wanted, I couldn't have because she wouldn't let me. She was the only one who could..." She sighed, putting her hands down, but letting her head hang. "I wanted the companionship she had. I wanted _him_."

"Demetri," Felix said quietly. He'd seen it in her eyes before. There had always been a flirtation, but never more, although he suspected they both wanted more. Aro had probably been the reason nothing had ever happened. Unity meant division—he had learned that years ago when Eleazar had found Carmen and left. And Demetri was so much more to lose than Eleazar had been. Aro would have wanted to keep him chained to the Volturi life style.

Now the chains had been cut.

"We can't stay here for long, Heidi." Felix glanced around. "We'll have to burn the house down. Maybe set it with some of his drink. Make it look like he passed out drunk and set fire to the place."

Heidi nodded. "That's a good plan. Then where do we go?"

"Somewhere dark, somewhere we can hide."

"Do you think he'll find us?"

"Maybe." Felix smiled. "Probably. Demetri has been my friend for a long time. If he wants to find us, he will. Especially when he realizes we're not in Italy."

"I wonder how things are there now."

"I don't know. Probably not good." Felix glanced around. "Shall we?"

"Yes, but look to see if he has any money first." Heidi smiled wryly. "We'll need to get you some new clothes."

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Jacob's foot tapped as he stared out the front window, and Seth rolled his eyes. "Jake, man, she's not going to get home any faster if you keep dancing around like this. Sit down, grab a controller, and kill some zombies."

Jacob ignored Seth and went back to pacing. He was sure that he was going to wear a hole in the floor if he kept it up, but he couldn't help it. He had not seen his fiancée in two weeks, and he was losing the ability to function. His hair stood on end from all the times he had run his hair through it, and he was so worked up that even Jasper had given him up as a lost cause. She had called yesterday evening to say that they had located the hybrid, Alma, and that they were returning home without her. She'd sounded upset and had promised to elaborate when she came home.

A cold hand on his arm froze him in place, and he turned to see Esme smiling up at him, concern etched onto her perfect face. "Are you hungry, dear?" she asked gently. "It won't do you any good if you pass out from hunger _and_ exhaustion when she gets here."

Jacob looked out the window again and sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

Esme's smile brightened and she led him into the kitchen and pushed him into a seat at the breakfast bar. He didn't have time to speak before she put a plate piled with spaghetti and garlic bread in front of him, with a bowl of salad. It smelled amazing. He wasn't sure how he'd missed this, but he dug in despite himself.

He was halfway through his second serving when the kitchen door opened and a flash of white and brown streaked through. He frowned. "Bells?"

She flitted back into the room, a can of bathroom cleaner in one hand and a bucket of cleaning supplies in the other. She looked upset about something.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. What makes you think anything's wrong?"

"you only go at the bathroom that hardcore when you're really upset about something."

Bella grimaced, and Jacob knew he'd hit home. "I just don't like her being away from home for this long," she said, putting the bucket down and sitting across from him. "It's the longest I've gone without seeing her."

"Empty nest syndrome," Jacob said, taking another bite of spaghetti.

"I suppose," she said quietly. She propped her chin up on her hand and watched him eat with a slight look of disgust. "I used to love spaghetti."

"Want some?'

"No, thanks, I prefer my beef raw and live." Jacob made a face as he took another bite, finishing off his helping. "You done?"

"For now." Jacob pushed his plate away.

Bella picked the plate and bowl up and carried them to the sink, where she methodically rinsed them before putting them in the dishwasher. She then proceeded to rinse, clean, and dry the sink before sitting back across from Jacob.

"Seriously, Bells," he said, laughing, "your OCD's gotten worse since you turned vamp."

Her tawny eyes rolled. "Your smell's gotten worse."

"So's yours."

"Be nice, or I won't let you marry my daughter."

Jacob was about to retort, but the sound of a car slowing then turning onto the drive stopped him. Both of their heads snapped toward the front door. For a moment, neither of them moved, but then they were both on their feet, Jacob following after Bella as she flitted to the front room.

Moments later, Renesmee's black Jag pulled into the drive. She was climbing out of the passenger side before it fully stopped, and Bella was out the front door and had swooped down on her before he could blink.

"Hi, momma," she said quietly, wrapping her arms around Bella. She looked exhausted.

"I missed you, baby," Bella said, pulling back to look at her daughter. She frowned as she cupped Renesmee's paler than usual face in her hands. "You don't look so good. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Grandpa brought some blood from the hospital—"

"No, I want to hunt." Renesmee's eyes narrowed, and she pressed her hand to Bella's arm.

Bella smiled sympathetically. "That's probably a good idea," she agreed, responding to something Jacob couldn't hear.

"Want me to stay here?" Jacob asked, trying not to sound as if he were opposed to the idea, which he was.

He didn't see her move, but she suddenly had her arm wrapped tightly around him, making it a little hard to breathe, but he didn't mind. He pulled her closer, burying his face in her bronze curls and inhaling deeply the scent that was only her—freesia, lilacs, homemade bread, a cool ocean breeze, a summer rain shower, and something that was unique to her. He inhaled again, smiling when he felt her bury her face into his chest and sigh softly.

"Missed you," she whispered. "I'm so glad to be home."

The front door opened again and Jacob glanced over her head to see Edward coming toward them, looking concerned. "Darling? Is everything okay?"

Renesmee let go of Jacob to climb into her father's arms, and he smiled. They were quiet for a minute, then Edward laughed. "That may get uncomfortable after a while," he said, still chuckling. He lifted her into the cradle of his arms as if she were weightless and turned to walk back into the house.

Jacob smiled. He had long since accepted that his lover's bond with her father was not something that would ever be broken. Nothing could cause that. It had been tested two years ago, when Renesmee had discovered that there was once a time when her father had not wanted her, and she had cried alone in her room for days, refusing to be consoled, refusing food and denying her thirst. When she had emerged, her face was blotchy and her eyes were bagged and bloodshot, but she had gone to where her father was sitting in the living room and curled up next to him, her head on his shoulder. She'd been weak with thirst at the point, and he had carried her, much the way he did now, to the kitchen. They had came out two hours later, there was more understanding between them than there ever had been, and that bond was stronger than ever.

Now, Jacob followed them back into the house and up the stairs to her old room. She curled into a ball the minute she was on the bed, and Edward began to have some difficulty with getting her shoes off.

"Both of you, out," Bella said sternly, appearing behind them a second later. "Give a girl some privacy. She can hunt tomorrow."

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Once the door had shut behind Edward and Jacob, Bella gently lifted her daughter into her arms. "Come on, baby. Let's get you cleaned up."

Renesmee dozed while Bella helped her out of her clothes and into the bathroom, her head bobbing as Bella lowered her into a warm bath. Gently, Bella washed and rinsed her daughter's hair like she had when she was much younger. She scrubbed behind her neck and ears, across her back, down her arms, washing off the grime from her traveling.

Once she had been scrubbed pink, Bella helped her back out, dried her off, and held her up while she pulled on pajamas.

"Almost ready, baby," she murmured in her ear, and once Renesmee's hair was brushed and braided into pigtails, she helped her daughter under the covers.

"Stay," Renesmee whispered, grabbing Bella's hand. Bella smiled, running a hand over Renesmee's forehead. She watched as the brown eyes drooped closed, stared in wonder as her breathing slowed, held her hand to her cheek and watched her dream.

They were motionless for hours. Sometime around one in the morning, the door opened and Bella heard Edward's soft footsteps cross the room to the other side of the bed. He eased himself down next to his daughter, reaching across for Bella's free hand.

"Nothing is going to happen to her, love," he whispered. "They won't lay a hand on her."

"I know they won't," Bella growled softly. "They'll have to get through me, first."

"And me, and Emmett and Jasper and Rose and Alice, and everyone else in our family. Then they'll have to get through our friends. But it won't come that far. We found a way last time—we will find a way this time." Edward smiled and kissed her fingers.

Bella sighed. "I hope you're right."

They were silent for the rest of the night while Renesmee slept.

_a/n I'm feeling mostly better at this point, so yay! I will hopefully update in the next week or so. Peace out!_


	4. Destinations

**CHAPTER 4—DESTINATIONS **

It was easy to hide in Chicago. Just under three million people lived here, and plenty of homeless people wandered the streets. It was easy to pick one or two off every week. It was harder to live without instant gratification.

Still, no one bothered them here. For two weeks, Felix and Heidi had hunkered down here, staying in a beat up hotel on the city's southern side by day, wandering the streets by night. They had to limit their hunting, so nightly walks were often spent planning in the somewhat fresh air. They didn't usually walk in the same place twice, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Some nights they sat atop abandoned buildings, the tops of the projects, other places where they could not be seen, and stared at the constantly lit city.

The conversation was always the same. Look for Demetri, or look for the Cullens?

It always ended the same—undecided. Confused. Terrified.

Felix wanted to find the Cullens. He'd known Demetri for two hundred years, knew the other vampire could take care of himself. If anyone were trying to find him, he'd know instantly. Felix, on the other hand, was no tracker. If Aro came to find him, he wouldn't know until Aro was at the door. Probably with Caius. Caius with a flame thrower. He knew that finding the Cullens could mean finding safety. They would know he was coming through the little one, Alice. Edward would read his mind and know why he had come. Carlisle would give him the chance to explain, and probably safe harbor in return for information.

Heidi wanted Demeri. With a single-minded ferocity, she argued with Felix night after night that they should search for him. He would have gone somewhere populated, somewhere unlikely, and somewhere without a high vampire population. She had no idea where.

Their fights were often violent, and sometimes they caught themselves fighting like newborns, snarling and snapping. Heidi had tossed Demetri off the roof of a fifty story building one night in a rage, causing the explosion of a dumpster and a large crack in the concrete below it.

Still, neither of them abandoned the other. Together, they were more protected. Two were better than one when you were on a hit list, and they were constantly peeking out curtains for anything suspicious. Alone, there was no one to watch your back. Alone, there was no one to help you in a fight.

Alone, there was no one to talk to.

Tonight, Felix and Heidi wandered down an abandoned street, dilapidated houses lining it.

"Can I say something cliché?" Heidi asked softly.

"What?"

"Maybe we should be looking for some kind of sign."

Felix raised his eyebrows. "That _is_ cliché."

"Really." Heidi kicked a rock at him, and watched as is bounced off. "If we think someone has been here in town, someone who is friends with the Cullens, we should take it like some kind of sign."

"And if we see someone who hates them, what? We run like hell?" Felix rolled his eyes. "That's ridiculous."

"Say what you want." Heidi sighed and hopped over a puddle. "I'm watching for signs."

"You're not watching for signs, you're watching for Demetri."

"He has to be out there somewhere, Felix," Heidi said softly. "I'll find him."

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Most vampires did not spend long periods of time with their eyes closed. Sometimes, when enjoying a rare moment of soaking up the sun, he'd seen their eyes close. Or when they were afraid.

The sun felt nice, and he was terrified, but that wasn't what kept Demetri's eyes closed.

Yesterday, for the first time since running from Volterra, Demetri had come to a decision. He had to find Heidi, to know where she was, to know that she was still alive. It had been almost twenty-four exhausting hours, and he knew he'd need to hunt soon, and he still had not found her. She was not in Volterra, not in Europe at all. Not even Asia or England, that he could tell. It terrified him that he was having so much trouble finding her. It could mean...

No.

Demetri shook his head, opening his eyes for the first time. It was hard to focus when he so needed to hunt. Glancing out of the opening of the little cave, he weighed his options. He had two that he knew of, and one was more convenient but much less appealing. The other would take some finesse.

He went with the latter.

Climbing out, Demetri glanced around, closing his eyes briefly again. When he opened them, he stalked off to the north toward his prey, wondering vaguely if hikers would hike less if they knew that sometimes vampires roamed the mountains. Maybe not. They seemed to live for the thrill.

The two hikers proved almost unbearably easy. Gently, he knocked the first unconscious with a blow to the back of the head while he took the other. The man's screams echoed off the cliffs. His friend stayed silent.

As he finished off the second one, he let his mind wander back to finding Heidi, or, for that matter, Felix. Neither of them were in Volterra, and he was terrified as he hadn't been able to locate either of them by now.

As he tossed the men into the deepest chasm he could find, he nearly fell in himself. It wouldn't have hurt, but it would have been a pain to get out.

He felt the distant echoes, the familiar tenor that was Felix. He was north somewhere, far north. He was nowhere near the far mountains he was in. Canada? No, not quite. Farther south. His feet had made the decision too run before he did. He scanned outward from the distant point that was Felix to see if his friend was alone.

And there she was.

They must have run together. He'd left both of them behind in Volterra before he had even realized he was running. There were no other familiar points near them. He hit the ocean in minutes, diving below the surface away from prying eyes and swam as hard as he could up the South American coast.

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Edward was just setting pancakes and bacon in front of his daughter when Alice, standing in the doorway and thinking about what she would dress her niece in today, suddenly froze. He didn't notice it at first—he was too focused on his daughter's thoughts, which were directed at him this morning. Then the flashes of vision flashed through his mind, coming from Alice.

Something had triggered her to check up on Italy, and now, she was lost in an array of disturbing images.

_A building was on fire. Aro and Caius were standing in front of it, and even in the dark, a plume of purple rising from the fire was visible. The smell would be cloying, heavy. Their faces were identical masks of horror..._

_The tower room was in chaos. A fireplace off in a corner was emitting purple fumes as Renata and Alec worked to toss various body parts into the fire while Aro and Caius conferenced. They were discussing those who had neither been destroyed or remained. Heidi, Corin, Demetri, Marcus, Felix..._

_Heidi and Felix wandering a deserted street in a vaguely familiar city..._

_Demetri falling into the Pacific Ocean, swimming north... Crawling onto a beach somewhere on the west coast..._

"Dad!" Edward felt himself being shaken. He had been so tuned to Alice that he had not heard his daughter trying to get his attention, nor had he heard Bella enter the room.

"Edward?" Bella's voice was edged with fear. "What's wrong? What is she seeing?"

"I don't know," he said slowly. "None of it makes sense. Something's gone wrong, though. The Volturi—they're divided." He closed his eyes, concentrating, but Alice's visions were gone.

_Some of them are dead._ Shock resonated through Alice's thoughts, and Edward opened his eyes. _Something happened. They've killed their own, and they've separated. Why would they do that?_

Edward shook his head, not wanting to answer aloud. "You didn't see the trigger?"

_No._ Alice's eyes were wide. _Aro and Caius are at the fire now. The rest is going to happen._

Edward flitted to the TV, turning it on to a news channel. There was nothing on Volterra. Not yet anyway. He was just about to ask Alice to look again, to tell Bella to start making phone calls, when a new set of thoughts intruded on his mind.

_God dammit, where's the damn house?_ It seemed to be a woman's thoughts, irritated. _Stupid woman, Miss I-Know-Everything_. He was surprised to see Maria's face flash across the woman's thoughts. _If I don't find it in five more minutes, that's a sign, right? I'm not supposed to be here. I don't have anything to do with this! This is insane. Girl's crazy. Hope she doesn't really think I'm going to fight with them. Holy, that's a big house..._

Edward looked out the window. An old Nissan, faded blue but impeccably clean, with Texas plates was pulling up the Cullen family's driveway. Edward could just make out a blond woman in the front seat. He'd seen her before, in Renesmee's thoughts. It was the vampire hybrid, Alma Thomas. Edward frowned. Her thoughts were still annoyed, but at the moment, she seemed more annoyed with herself.

_This is stupid. They're probably just gonna send me home. Probably don't even need the help. _She was sitting in her now stationary car, staring forward at her hands, which were still clenched on the steering wheel. _Get a grip, Thomas. Worst they can do is kill you. Hell, probably do you a favor if they did._ Her thoughts were suddenly melancholy, and Edward was surprised. Faces began to flash through her thoughts, and the unspoken thoughts brought Edward to the realization that this girl was one of the saddest, loneliest people he'd ever met—worse than he had been, even. He had had no one before Bella. This girl's lovers were numerous, and the various endings ranged from men leaving her for other, less frightening, women, or their deaths. Every time, it seemed to get worse for her.

"Who's here?" Renesmee was at his side a second later, peering out at the little blue car. She frowned. "What's she doing here?"

"She's come to help," Edward said softly. "Be nice," he warned, as Renesmee's thoughts took a bitter turn. "You could try to be friends with her, you know."

"She's..." Renesmee closed her mouth, but the word _Bitch_ thundered through her head and into Edward's. He winced.

"She has her reasons." He tousled Renesmee's hair, earning another scowl from her, and flitted quickly to the front door. He hesitated for a moment before he opened it, stepping out and walking slowly, for him, toward Alma's car.

Alma Thomas sized him up for a brief minute before she climbed gracefully from her car. She _was_ tall, as Renesmee had recalled. Her build reminded him slightly of Rosalie. She was blond, built like a model with just enough curves in just the right places, and not at all his type. Her eyes, electric blue with violet flecks in them, were piercing and calculating. Edward slowly held out a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Alma. I'm Edward."

She stopped about two feet away from him, staring at his hand. Her face was hard, but she slowly extended her own to shake his. She certainly was a hybrid, he thought wryly, feeling the blazing heat of her skin and the pulse that ran quickly below it.

"Is it a bad time?" she asked, and Edward picked up on the Texas lilt to her voice, as heavy as Jasper's had been when he had first met Alice.

"Not at all." Edward released her hand when she released his, and gestured toward the house. "Won't you come in?"

Her thoughts were a jumble as she walked ahead of him inside. She was shocked at the hospitality, suspicious of it, and a little embarrassed about the shabby suit case and old golf clubs in her trunk.

_Golf clubs?_ Edward hid a chuckle at this last thought. She was going to be right at home.

He led her to the living room, glancing around at the small group there. They were acting just like they always did. Emmett and Seth overflowed the couch as they warred with each other on the television. Rosalie was flipping through the latest _Vogue_ while Alice and Jacob argued about Jacob's latest wardrobe on the computer. Only Renesmee was the exception. She sat next to Rosalie with a book that she wasn't reading so much as glaring at. Edward listened as Alma took it all in. She was looking around in wonder. Memories of her own shabby home in Texas flooded her mind as she looked around at the design of the room. She looked at each of its inhabitants, hiding another laugh as she rolled her eyes mentally at the fashionable Rosalie, realizing now why Renesmee dressed the way she did. She registered that Renesmee was still mad at her, and promised herself that she would get back for the redneck crack. She decided to like Jacob—he didn't seem too interested in clothes. Her whole being flooded with relief when she saw Seth and Emmett—video games, she could do.

"Everyone, this is Alma." Edward spoke just a bit louder than usual. They all glanced up and their thoughts ranged from shocked, annoyed, intrigued, and...

Edward's mind focused on one other person's while Alma spoke.

"Hello." He registered that her voice was very quiet, not at all like Renesmee remembered. "It's very nice to meet you all."

"Hello, Alma!" Alice was out of her chair and across the room before Edward could start wondering what was going on with the one person who had not moved at all—not to smile, not to move his eyes, nothing. He just stared, seeming to be in shock, at Alma. "I'm Alice! And that's Jacob, and Rosalie over there—wave, Rose—and you remember Renesmee, or Nessie to some of us, and that's Emmett and... Seth..." She spoke Seth's name slowly, frowning at him as Edward began to feel horrified.

Alma frowned at Seth. "You alright?"

Seth blinked. "Uh... yeah, I'm... I'm fine." Suddenly, he was out of his seat. "Do you have any bags or anything? I can get them for you. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Anything you need at all, don't be afraid to ask." He stumbled over his feet as he made his way out to Alma's car, still muttering.

The room was silent, except for the sound of Emmett's game beeping once and a while, still on pause. No one moved, except to stare at Jacob. Jacob's head was in his hands.

Alma frowned a bit further and asked, with a bit of annoyance in her voice, "Was it something I said?"

_a/n What happened? You can probably figure it out. Not sure when the next update will be. I'm healthy again which means no excuse to stay in and sleep all day. Review!_


	5. Girl

_a/n There's some funny sex in this chapter. Not too graphic, but I changed the rating to air on the side of safety. Enjoy!_

**CHAPTER 5—GIRL **

Alma Thomas. Her name was like a song. She was beautiful, curvy with amazing eyes unlike anything he'd ever seen. She should be living in a house like the Cullens did, driving some expensive sports car and having every comfort imaginable. Still, the girl in the daisy dukes and cowboy boots dressed in a way that he would never think to cover up with designer jeans. Frankly, he hoped she didn't even own jeans or pants of any kind—nothing to cover up the long legs that seemed to flow endlessly up into beautifully curved thighs. Plus, those shorts were so short that, when she bent over, he could just see the curve of her butt where it met those thighs.

Still, there was something in her electric eyes that made Seth pause. Under the cynicism and calculation, there was a sadness. She seemed worried about any physical contact with any unattached member of the opposite sex. He'd wanted to find a way to make her happy, and when she'd asked if there was water nearby, he'd driven her immediately to the Cullen family's cabin on Lake Winnipesaukee, making the two hour drive in half the time. She'd not spoken much, but when she did, her strong Texan accent nearly melted him.

Now, he sat on the porch of the little cabin watching as she smacked the hell out of thirty odd golf balls, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. He'd never been attracted to smokers, but something about the way she held it between her fingers while concentrating on the balls was incredibly sexy.

He wasn't stupid—he knew what had happened as soon as she'd walked in the door. It was like there was no one in the room except her. The breath had been knocked out of his lungs, and he'd stumbled from the room to get her bags. Jacob had come after him, asking if he was alright. He was better than alright—he was stellar.

She was everything to him. How could he possibly be everything to someone as amazing as her, though? He chugged down the rest of a beer, scowling down at his too-big hands. She was tall, certainly, but she was also delicate. He'd never tell her that—he had a feeling she could kick his ass if she wanted. It sounded as if she showed no mercy to golf balls, in any case.

"So your buddy's getting married," she said, not a question, as she slid a five iron back into the bag. "Jealous?"

"A little." Seth scooted over on the wooden bench as she made her way back up to the house. "They're so happy all the time."

"Fuck happy people." Alma grabbed another beer from the cooler before sitting down next to him. "It's not fair."

Seth chuckled as she scowled over the lake, the setting sun dancing on the water and making her face glow even more, if it was possible. "I'm a happy person."

"Fuck you." Her tone was harsh, but Seth could see the twinkle of mirth in her eyes. It was like the violet flecks were dancing there.

"Why do you hate happy people so much?"

Alma leaned back a bit, propping her bare feet in front of her and leaning her head back to rest against the wall of the house. "It's not that I want everyone to be miserable with me," she said slowly, "it's just that I've tried to be one of those happy people. Doesn't work for me."

"So you just give up?"

A sad, wistful smile crossed her face, and for a moment, she looked very young. It was the most relaxed he'd seen her yet, but he suspected it had something to do with the twelve beers she'd consumed in the past two hours. "I don't think I'm meant to be happy," she said softly. "Every man I've ever met either got scared off by me or I was too strong for them and I broke them. Literally." She took another swig of beer. "This one guy, I accidentally suffocated him." She winced.

"You just need someone sturdier, that's all," Seth said, feeling like something was finally going his way.

"Baby, nobody's that sturdy except for vampires, and I'd never screw one of them. Too damn risky."

Seth was about to say that he was sturdy enough when a smell hit him. He stiffened, and leapt to his feet, grabbing Alma and putting her behind him.

"Hey!" Her voice was indignant. "What's—"

"Vampire," he said, looking around frantically. "I don't know the smell—it's not the Cullens or any of their friends."

"How can you smell—"

"It's a long story." Seth stared out into the woods around the house. "Stay close to me, and don't panic," he said.

Then he phased.

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Felix wandered through the wilderness, alone for the first time in weeks. Heidi and Demetri were making up for lost decades of attraction at the moment, and he wanted to be as far from them as possible. A week ago, Demetri had arrived on the threshold of their dingy hotel room, and the three of them had come to the decision to go looking for a safer haven. Now they were wandering through the northeast part of the country, going off of Demetri's tracking instincts. They hunted here and there, trying to keep from attracting any attention. Felix disappeared from time to time, like now, to give his traveling companions time alone.

It was usually many hours before they had any desire to head off again.

The wind shifted at that moment, and Felix crinkled his nose. Something reeked, but it was mixed with a pleasant scent he couldn't pinpoint. Both scents were familiar, though, and he followed his nose out of the trees. Then he heard the sound of material shredding and a cry of shock. A growl thundered through the otherwise quiet evening, and he was immediately on his guard. He crouched as he moved out of the trees and as soon as he saw the enormous sandy colored wolf, he realized he'd stumbled across one of the Cullens' allies.

His mind flashed back to a decade ago. A line of huge, regimented wolves flaking a group of mismatched vampires. Big teeth that could rip a vampire apart. Calculating eyes, rumbling growls that shook the earth.

Felix raised his hands as he took in the wolf. Behind it, there was a young woman. She was tall with thick, honey blond curls that fell down her back. She was very curvy, with blue-violet eyes that were wide with shock as she stared at the huge wolf. She followed its gaze, and when she saw Felix, her lips pulled back over her teeth and she growled at him.

Her heart beat more quickly than any human's. He could feel, from here, the heat rolling off her body, could see the flush in her cheeks. _Hybrid_.

He turned to run.

Everything slowed down. His muscles relaxed, and he couldn't move. His brain worked overtime with the terror as he fought to regain control. Nothing worked—not his arms or legs or hands. He couldn't blink or move his eyes from where they had rested on the girl. Her face was scrunched up now with concentration. He focused on the panic—it seemed to help. He twitched a finger, but then it shut down again.

The panic helped. Felix let it take over, and he could feel his muscles trying to work. It was difficult.

The girl spoke. "Calm down."

Her voice shocked him. It was like wind chimes, but still low and easy. She was not from around here—she had a strong twang that was easy to hear even with the two words she had spoken. It was soothing, but he could hear the stress behind it.

The wolf growled, and he tensed again. He hadn't realized that his brain had relaxed at all.

"Seth," she said softly. "Don't scare him. I want to know why he's here before you kill him." She hopped lithely from the porch of the little cabin and moved fluidly to stand three feet in front of him. Behind her, the wolf moved a bit closer, but stayed silent now.

Her eyes bored into his, and up close, they were even more shocking. They were so blue, and there was violet there. They seemed to be glowing as she stared at him.

"You're one of the Volturi guard," she said. Not a question. Her voice was assertive. "Who sent you?"

He felt the muscles of his throat tighten slightly, and his lips and tongue, but nothing else. "What are you doing to me?" he choked, finally able to tense and speak.

The electric eyes narrowed and his muscles relaxed beyond use again. "That's not an answer," she said softly. "You answer the questions I ask you. Don't you come up with your own. Do you understand?" Her voice was so persuasive, but it still carried the ring of authority, like she was an officer and he was a soldier.

He felt some muscles regain their control, and he was able to nod again. Then he felt, again, his ability to use the muscles required for speech returning. "No one sent me," he said slowly. His body was so relaxed, and as her eyes returned to normal, he felt a little calmer. It was odd, but the calmer he became, the more relaxed the rest of his body became. "We left. We're trying to find the Cullens."

"Tell me why." She said the words with persuasion, again, and her eyes softened. She seemed to look a bit pleading. He calmed a bit more, and he was completely losing the desire to move.

"If you let me move."

"No." He felt his mind race again, and the urge to move was almost unbearable. Her eyes tightened again, and she seemed to be struggling with something. "Calm down," she hissed. "I'll rip you apart with my bare hands if I have to. Tell me why you're looking for the Cullens."

Again, a finger twitched. Behind the girl, he heard the sound of the wolf returning to its human form. "Alma?" He sounded worried. "What's going on?"

Her eyes were terrifying as she growled at him, and he tried so hard to run. She seemed to concentrate harder. "Tell me why!" she barked. "You tell me why the hell you're here right now."

It was like he had to answer her. "We have nowhere else to go!" he said, his voice panic stricken and almost pleading. Why was she so terrifying to him? "We can't go back to Italy—they'll kill us if we do! There was an argument, a disagreement, and my friend killed one of the other guard members. We got split up and he just found us. We're trying to get to the Cullens so that we can warn them! Aro can't keep doing this, it's wrong! Please don't kill me..."

Felix hadn't realized that she was crouched to spring until she straightened up with surprise. The panic ebbed a bit, and he was no longer able to move his finger.

"What do you mean, warn them?" she asked.

"We know their plans." He wanted to answer her now as she gazed across at him. "We want Aro and Caius dead for what they've done to us."

The girl, Alma, frowned and stared down at the ground. She seemed to be thinking, and after a minute she looked back up at him.

"Please don't run."

Everything snapped. He knew that if he tried to run, he would be able to, but he suspected that this strange woman could stop him. He stayed where he was.

"Explain."

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Jacob wanted to kill someone when he heard the phone ring. Who the hell called at two in the morning? He ignored it, focusing on Renesmee, who didn't break from her motions as she glared at the phone.

"Fuck off," she groaned.

Laughing, Jacob held his hands a bit tighter on her hips. "You're so sexy when you're annoyed," he said, grinning up at her.

"That so?" She smiled back at him, lacing her fingers through his as one of his hands crept up her torso to land on her breast. She moaned again, and he felt his body start to tighten.

The phone rang again.

"What the fuck?" he growled.

"Don't answer it, baby, please!" Renesmee's chocolate eyes pleaded with him through the haze of lust. "I'm so close."

"I know, baby," he grunted. He grasped her hip tighter still, amazed as he always was that she couldn't break. He grabbed his cell off the bedside table and looked at the caller ID. It was Seth.

"Jacob Black, don't you dare." Her voice had gone to a growl, and he moaned loudly as she glared down at him. Angry Renesmee—sexier still.

What would she do if he actually answered it?

Jacob stared straight into her fiery eyes as he flipped the phone. She started to slow down, but he moved quicker under her. "What, Seth?"

Her eyes widened and she laced her fingers through his. _What the hell are you doing?_ she shrieked mentally at him.

He winked, and her thoughts changed. She grinned back and giggled too quietly for Seth to hear as she sped back up.

"Hey, Jake." Seth's voice sounded tense. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"No," he grunted, trying to keep from screaming as his fiancée gyrated on top of him.

"So, Alma and I are gonna be home in a while and I need you to call Carlisle and warn him that we're coming with some guests."

"Yeah, got it." Jacob buried his face in the pillow. Renesmee giggled again.

"You okay, man?"

Jacob's voice was a squeak when it came out. "Yep."

Seth started talking, and Jacob barely registered what he was saying. Renesmee's face was scrunched up into an expression of extreme pleasure. Her body was trembling and pulling his deeper into hers. She was close. Her fingers tightened around his. _Please, baby, I'm almost there._

Jacob grinned. She didn't need to speak to beg.

"Jacob!" Seth shouted. "Did you hear a thing I just said?"

Jacob gritted his teeth as she tightened a little more, and he thrust up harder into her. "Not really."

Renesmee clapped both hands over her mouth, but it wasn't enough to stifle the squeal that came from her throat. She moved still faster, her breasts bouncing in time with the thrusts of his hips.

"Jake," she said, in a whispered moan. "Please..."

"Dude, what the hell are you doing?"

Jacob didn't answer. He wasn't paying attention. _Almost there..._

"Are you..." Seth's voice trailed off, then he groaned. "Please, Jake, tell me you're not doing what I think you are."

"Just a second, man." He threw down the phone, snapping it shut and hanging up on Seth just as she clamped down on him tighter than ever, pulling him over the edge with her. She grabbed his hands, letting the screams tear from her throat. He matched her last desperate movements.

Ten minutes later, he was pulled out of his post-coital bliss by the phone ringing from where it had landed on the floor. He reached one long arm down and picked it up.

"Jacob?" Seth's voice was hesitant. "Are you... uh... I mean, are you..."

Renesmee giggled into his shoulder. "Yes, Seth, we're done. What do you need?"

Seth repeated his earlier story. "So, like I was saying, Alma and I were just sitting outside at the cabin and that big Volturi vampire, Felix, came up out of nowhere! So I go and phase and I'm getting ready to rip him to shreds when he just stops moving, and it was weird, because it looked like he was gonna take off running. Then Alma starts asking him all these questions, and he only answers when she lets him."

"What do you mean, 'when she lets him?'" Jacob frowned, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Renesmee peer up at him. Her thoughts were as confused as his.

"I don't know how she does it, man, but it's like you can't move if she doesn't want you to. She did it to me to show me and it's like all your muscles just get so relaxed you can't move. She says it's easier to do if the person's calm." Seth breathed in a deep, shaky breath. "I don't know if you're thinking what I'm thinking, man, but she could be real useful when those Italian ass holes come calling."

"I doubt they'll be calm, Seth," Jacob said, but as soon as the words were out of his mind he realized what Seth meant. "We'll talk about it. You said something before about visitors?"

"Well, yeah." Seth hesitated. "You gotta make sure Jasper and Emmett know, 'cause you know how they get. So, Felix went off and got Demetri and this Heidi girl, and they're coming back with Alma and me to talk to Carlisle. I guess they're really freaked out that Aro will kill them if they go back to Volterra."

"Why?"

"It's too complicated to explain over the phone. Anyway, call Carlisle and tell him we'll be there in about half an hour." Seth hesitated. "Or, I can call him."

"No, I got it," Jacob said. "I think we'll all need to be up there for this." He hung up the phone and pulled Renesmee a bit tighter to his chest. She had started to shake.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"I know, baby." He pressed his lips to the curls on the top of her head. "Everything's going to be alright, you'll see."

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

_a/n Sorry for the long delay. A wise man once said, "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans." Yep. Been busy with school. Life sucks. Oh, well. School's almost out! One more month!_


	6. Visitors at the Fight Club

**CHAPTER 6—VISITORS AT THE FIGHT CLUB  
**

Jacob had seen vampires still and silent before, but for some reason, this time stuck out in his mind. Perhaps it was the promise of the arrival of three vampires who may or may not want to kill them. He knew that Bella's thoughts, at least, were with his own.

_What if they were lying? What if they were spying?_

His only comfort, as he clutched Renesmee a bit closer, was that they would know immediately. A quick plan had been formed by Jasper and Edward. Jasper would follow Edward's lead, and the others would follow Jasper's instruction. If for some reason Felix, Heidi, and Demetri had managed to trick Seth and Alma, Edward would know immediately. The plan was for him to request to be excused on the pretense of taking Renesmee home. Jacob would exit with him and run Renesmee far out of the way. She was too central to the conflict to be kept nearby.

Of course, in typical Nessie style, she was not happy with the plan. Even now, she clutched at his hand, sending annoyed thoughts along the lines of, _can look after myself… don't need help… I want at their throats just as much…_

Jacob sighed, glancing at Edward out of the corner of his eye. Edward's eyebrows drew closer together and he frowned slightly. Bella looked at him, concerned, but he just shook his head. He leaned closer to her and his lips vibrated with silent speech. Bella frowned, and glared at her daughter. Renesmee caught her mother's eye and scowled back at her.

"You will if I carry you," Edward said softly, his eyes locked on his daughter. Jacob didn't have to try too hard to know what Renesmee was thinking, and he frowned, silently promising Edward he'd help if it came to that.

She smirked. "You don't think that'll look suspicious?"

Edward sighed angrily. "I'd think of something."

The sound of a car turning onto the drive made them all freeze. Jacob was certain it was Alma. The old Nissan had a fairly distinctive sound—the engine whined a bit, and he could hear a loose back hubcap rattling slightly. He wondered vaguely why she'd never fixed it.

The engine cut off several feet from the house, and there was a pause before he heard two car doors open and close. There was a pause, and he head Alma's voice. "If you're not full of shit, they won't kill you. Let's get the lead out."

Jacob chuckled. Alma was so different from Seth that the presence of the imprint there surprised him a bit. Still, though, in the few conversations he'd seen them have, it seemed like they balanced each other out fairly well.

Alma came through the door to the living room at that moment, golf clubs over her shoulder and an old, beat-up suitcase in one hand. It looked like she'd decided to stay, after all. She glanced behind her, sighing in annoyance. "They move any slower, I'll have to stimulate them, and that's not my favorite thing to do."

Seth laughed behind her. "You can do that?"

"Like I said, not my favorite thing to do."

Jacob's mind flashed back to the brief conversation he'd had with Seth earlier, and he recalled something about her odd talent. Seth had said she could stop someone from moving. He hadn't thought of the idea of it working the other way, as well, and he could see Edward's eyes widen with shock as he read Alma's thoughts.

"You're quite the force to be reckoned with," he said softly to Alma, and she smiled brilliantly.

"Why do you think nobody's ever messed with me in seventy years?" she asked smugly. "Ass holes don't make it through the door if I don't let them." She glanced behind her again. "Hurry up!" she shouted. "Jesus." She shook her head, turning to Edward again. "I don't think they're lying—they're all acting like we've brought them to the firing squad."

"The vampire firing squad," Seth added, coming around the corner.

"Vampire firing squad with flame throwers," she added, laughing.

"They're not lying," Edward said, and his voice was almost stunned. "They've been nothing but honest. Granted, they left out a few details." He looked a little shocked, still, but his voice was satisfied.

"Just the gory ones."

Demetri was just the same as Jacob remembered him. He was tall, not built for strength so much as speed and stealth, with long dark hair. His pale skin had an olive tint to it, and his eyes were burgundy. Slightly behind him was the huge Felix, perhaps the only sure match for Emmett, who Jacob could see flexing his muscles slightly, and Heidi. Jacob half expected the trio to be wearing their long cloaks, but they were dressed in what looked like clothes pulled from a Goodwill store. He felt a stab of pity for them, knowing that the time on the road had probably not been as easy for them as it would have been if they had always been nomads. Heidi's clothes, especially, looked like they'd taken a beating.

"I'm sure you will regale us with the details soon," Carlisle said, stepping forward from where he stood next to Esme and Alice. "In the meantime, if everyone is amiable, I'm sure you would like to use our facilities."

Heidi breathed a soft sigh of relief, and Jacob wondered if it was because they had been allowed inside or the thought of taking a shower. Maybe both.

"That would be much appreciated," Demetri said in his appealing voice. "I'm sure Edward would be more than willing to fill in some blank spaces?" He raised his eyebrows, and his eyes locked with Edward's.

Edward nodded, his face now a blank mask. "If that is what you wish."

Jacob moved a little closer to Renesmee, and she sighed heavily. "So no fight?" she asked. She sounded a little disappointed, and Demetri looked at her for the first time.

"Not today, little terrorist," Emmett said, laughing. He shook his head, and puffed his chest out a little. "I've taught her well," he said proudly to Demetri.

Demetri ignored Emmett and took a step closer to Renesmee. He was staring at her with something like shock. "You grew this much in ten years?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," she said, her voice dropping a little as she shifted uncomfortably. She still held Jacob's hand, and she sent him her nervous thoughts. The only memories she had of the vampire in front of her were the desires of his former masters to see her dead. She would never say as much, but she was terrified as Demetri took another step closer.

As suddenly as he had started moving, he froze in place. Jacob thought he realized that he had startled her, but when Carlisle reminded him of his chance to clean up, he still didn't move.

"Impressive," Edward said quietly, and his eyes shot to Alma.

"Upstairs," she growled, and Demetri suddenly spun and disappeared. Felix, looking nervous, shot after him. Heidi scowled at Alma and took her leave, as well.

The room was quiet for a moment before Emmett's voice broke through the charged air. "You can really make people freeze?"

Alma's gaze moved to him, and a smirk crossed his face. "Try to move." Emmett did not respond—his eyes did not move from where they had rested on Alma, and his hands were halfway to his pockets, where they had been moving before she'd spoken. She laughed. "Had enough?" He didn't move. She looked to Edward, who was trying to hold in laughter. "He had enough?"

Edward nodded, still chuckling. "He's got a healthy respect for you now. He's trying to decide who'd win in a fight."

Alma stared straight into his eyes. "I always win. I've got the moves, even when I'm not focused enough for this."

As suddenly as he'd frozen, Emmett darted across the room toward her, and she sidestepped him neatly before catching him by the ankles with her foot and knocking him to the floor. She hopped over him and landed beside Jasper on the other side of the room.

Emmett lay stunned on the floor for several seconds before he growled and jumped to his feet. The house thundered with the impact of his feet hitting the floor, and he stared at Alma. "Outside," he said shortly, and disappeared out the front door.

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Heidi rinsed the shampoo from her hair, taking a deep breath in. The steam filled her dead lungs, and she turned to let the spray run over her face. She could feel the grime of the past few weeks melting away as she stood still under the hot water.

They were all still alive. The Cullens seemed to believe them without a word from any of them. She should have known that Edward would know they were honest, but the numbers had made her nervous. Still, now would be a good time to attack her, while she was so distracted.

A knock on the door made her jump. "Come in," she called.

The door clicked open, and she heard the nearly-silent steps of one of the Cullens. "I've brought you some clean clothes," said a soft voice. Esme, she thought. "They're Rosalie's, so they should fit you. Are you finding everything you need?"

"Yes, thank you." Heidi felt a bit awkward as she stood still, letting the hot water run down her naked body while this stranger bustled around the bathroom.

"Do you think you will need to hunt soon?" Esme's voice was concerned.

"I'm alright."

"Is there anything you need, dear?"

"No thank you."

Esme's feet stepped to the door. "Just call if you change your mind," she said, and she left.

Heidi didn't know the Cullens very well. Until recently, Aro had always spoken very highly of Carlisle Cullen, the vampire with enough control that he worked as a surgeon. It shouldn't surprise her that his wife was the perfect complement to his compassionate personality. She reminded Heidi of the vague memories she had of her own mother.

There was another knock on the door, and before she could answer, it opened. Demetri's scent invaded her mind, and she poked her head out of the shower. He was sitting on the toilet seat, smiling at her.

"You should hurry up," he said, mirth in his voice. "There's a real fight brewing downstairs."

Heidi shut off the water and climbed out. Demetri's eyes wandered shamelessly over her dripping, naked body. He stared for long enough that Heidi felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth.

"I really should take a picture for you to look at when I'm dressed," she said. "Although, I have a feeling it may become difficult to carry on conversation with you if I did."

Demetri laughed. "Later. Right now, I want to go see who wins in a fight."

"What do you mean?"

"Alma is going to attempt to fight Emmett," he said. "Without her... skill."

Heidi raised her eyebrows and pulled on the jeans left for her by Esme, noticing the label that said "Dolce & Gabbana." She tried not to gawk, but when the shirt had the same label, she said quietly, "Demetri? How much money do they have?"

"More than any human could hope to use in a lifetime," he said, lowering his voice and looking down at his expensive shoes. "Some say millions. Others, upwards of a billion. It's disposable to them."

"Where does it come from?"

"Carlisle makes plenty as a doctor, and they don't need to eat, so they don't spend it on food. And I'd imagine they have a lot of stock. Alice can probably tell what is good to invest in and what's not."

Heidi nodded, opening the door and letting the steam pour out. She was embarrassed. When she'd been human, she'd been wealthy. As a vampire, everything she owned was now Aro's. She had nothing to repay them with. She sighed, taking Demetri's hand. "Come on. Let's go see a fight."

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It was against everything Seth stood for to simply allow Alma to step into the middle of the Cullen family's massive yard and turn to take on Emmett. He knew better than to think that Emmett would really hurt Alma. He understood the limits and abilities of hybrids, having taught Renesmee to fight. Still, Renesmee had also had Jasper, who had taught her stealth and little tricks to keep her out of Emmett's grasp. He'd never seen Alma fight. What if she couldn't take him? What if he accidentally hurt her?

Alma had changed into a pair of close fitting pants and a tight tank top. Her shoes lay abandoned next to the front door, and she was staring across the lawn at Emmett. He circled her slowly, sizing her up. What surprised Seth was that Alma did not move with him. She stood, knees bent slightly, raised to the balls of her feet, arms raised and bent at the elbow. Seth watched in amazement as her eyes shifted out of focus, darkening until they were almost a black violet, all traces of the electric blue gone.

Emmett pounced on her, suddenly, and Seth was forced to restrain himself. Alma's eyes did not refocus, but she stepped out of Emmett's way once, then again as he doubled back. He frowned at her.

"She's not even looking at me," he complained. "How's she doing that?"

Edward chuckled, watching Alma from his spot at Jasper's side. "She doesn't need to look at you."

Jasper frowned. "She's actually very good."

"She learned from Maria, too, Jasper." Edward stroked his chin, watching as Alma hopped over Emmett's head as he lunged at her again. "Maria taught her knowing that she would never be able to outfight a vampire using her strength. She taught her how to use stealth and a few other tricks."

Seth relaxed a bit as Emmett continued to be frustrated by Alma, but he wondered how she planned to take him down. His answer came when her next side-step left her within arm's length of Emmett. He swiped at her, his arms grabbing empty air. Too quickly for him to see, she grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled. He nearly slammed into her, but she leapt onto his arm at the last minute, at the same time applying pressure on his thigh with one foot. He stumbled, and it was enough for her to get her legs around him. An instant later, her teeth were bared less than an inch from his throat. Emmett growled and tried to shake her off, but she held on, laughing. She was just small and nimble enough that he couldn't quite get her off.

"Your head'd be off by now, anyway," she said, mirth in her voice as he spun around, reminiscent of a dog chasing its tail. "You lose, big guy." She hopped down, still laughing.

Jasper was staring at her, his expression somewhere between shock and admiration. "Did you really learn all that from Maria?"

"No." Alma walked to Seth's side, and he felt much better once her hand was safely in his. "Some I learned by just figuring things out on my own, taking human fight styles and altering them to fit. The biggest thing is just avoiding the teeth."

"'Human fight styles?'" Jasper asked skeptically.

"Jujitsu, mostly. It's more about finding your attacker's weaknesses and disabling them. I practice on a friend at home. She's a good sport about it--only bitten me once."

The yard was suddenly silent. Carlisle was the first to speak. "Your friend--is she a vampire?"

Alma nodded, frowning. "So?"

"The venom didn't--it didn't kill you? Or change you?"

"Oh, it changed me alright. Turned me into a different person." She laughed. "I was throwing up for two weeks, running a fever and a cold sweat."

"But it didn't kill you?" Carlisle stepped closer to Alma, and Seth could see the spark of desire for new information in his eyes.

"Obviously," she said slowly. "Although, if she'd done it again, somewhere else, it probably could have."

"So the venom makes you sick."

"More than sick, it incapacitates you. I couldn't move for about two hours. I just lay on the beach, trying to breath, then after a while, I just felt sick. Emma didn't know what to do. She just dragged me into the house and kept an eye on me for a couple of weeks. I couldn't eat anything, couldn't drink anything--everything just came back up. I've never been so miserable in my life." Alma plopped down onto the ground, propping her chin on her hand thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, I think it may have been like extreme flu. Like I'd caught some kind of virus there was no cure for. My body's strong--it fights off just about anything, and it did eventually flush everything out, but if somebody had really been trying to kill me, it wouldn't have been too difficult by that point."

Carlisle had gradually stepped closer and closer as she's spoken, taking everything in attentively, and he was now five feet from them. "Is that all?"

She shrugged. "I'm leaving out the gory details, but yeah. That's the gist of it."

Seth laughed. "Carlisle's a doctor, Alma--he lives for gory details."

"It's good to know," Renesmee said quietly. "If anything like that happens, I give you full permission to run me out of the fight."

"You wouldn't be in the fight in the first place," Bella said, her eyes narrowing. "I don't care what she says--I'm not taking chances on you."

"I have to be there if it--"

"Would you both please stop?" Jacob's voice was weary. "You've been at it all morning. Really, I love you both, but you need to find common ground. You're giving me a headache."

"In any case," Carlisle said, looking as if he were trying to hide a smile, "we have other things to attend to right now. Bella, Nessie, you'll have to fight later. Right now, we need to speak with our guests."

_a/n Sorry!!!! I'm out of school for the summer now, and as of this moment, the job prospects aren't looking good. Bad economy means yours truly may be stuck babysitting this summer. Fortunately, I'm living at home. Peace out!_


	7. Getting Back to Normal

_a/n This chapter is partly from Edward's POV, but it's mostly Jacob's. Ah, the ever delightful FFC, the fluffy filler chapter. Mildly dirty fluff... Be warned. Enjoy!_

**CHAPTER 7—GETTING BACK TO NORMAL**

_You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. --Clarence Darrow_

Eleven vampires, two shape shifters, and two hybrids were situated around the Cullens large dining room table. The thoughts coming from the various members of the little group varied from curiosity to anticipation to... Well, he could try to ignore Seth's thoughts about how Alma looked in her spandex pants.

The joking atmosphere from the mock fight earlier had all but vanished. The energy in the room was full of tension and a bit of fear. A wave of calm quickly flooded the bad energy out, and everyone relaxed a bit.

After a minute or so, Carlisle finally broke the silence. He was seated in his usual spot, at the head of the table. He looked across to the other end, to where Demetri's fingers were wrapped tightly around Heidi's. Edward studied Demetri for a moment. He was on edge, fearing for their safety a bit if he phrased something wrong, told the wrong thing, or just got on someone's nerves. He had never liked being outnumbered, and this was a supremely uncomfortable situation for him—outnumbered in physical numbers and exceptional skills.

"Who was killed?" Carlisle asked, his voice soft but still full of authority.

Demetri closed his eyes, and Edward winced a little as a barrage of images hit him. A moment of madness, ripping and tearing and burning, the smell of a burning vampire...

"Chelsea," Demetri said, staring down at his and Heidi's joined hands. "I killed Chelsea."

"Only Chelsea?" Carlisle was confused—Alice had seen others dead.

"I didn't have anything to do with the deaths of the others," Demetri said, his face lifting to stare across at Carlisle.

"The others were killed by Aro and Caius afterward," Heidi interjected. "It was almost instantaneous. "Felix and Chelsea went to go look for Demetri. He just left, went into the city without telling anyone where he was going, not saying when or if he would return. They had been gone for a few hours when we felt it. Chelsea's powers had a good deal of extension. As long as she was in the city, she could still bind us. All those bindings snapped the second she died." Her eyes closed, and Edward saw Marcus, his face blazing with fury as he threw Aro off him, ripping his brother's arms from his body and flying from the room. "We were confused at first—none of us really understood what had happened. Then Santiago started to leave—said he was going to come here and warn you all. Aro and Caius wouldn't stand for it. It was madness. Some of us made it out, but we could hear screaming behind us as the others..." Heidi trailed off, and scanned through her thoughts. She had no desire to hear the tearing and burning and screaming again.

"I barely realized I was running. Corin and I were the first to run—we jumped out of the tower window. We split up almost at once—I wanted to find Demetri, and he just wanted to get out of the city." Edward saw Heidi's fingers give her lover's a squeeze. "I didn't find Demetri—I found Felix. He told me what Demetri had done."

Demetri looked Carlisle dead in the eyes. "What would you have done?" he asked quietly, almost pleadingly.

"Exactly how did it happen?" Carlisle's voice was not accusing, merely curious. His voice was soft, and his eyes full of understanding.

Demetri took a deep breath. "It wasn't something I'd thought about doing. It wasn't planned. I felt a sudden rage, and it consumed me—it was all I felt. I lost my control." He closed his eyes and let go of Heidi to bury his face in his hands. "I cannot tell you all that happened, as the memories are still unclear to me. I can tell you, however, that after it was done, I felt different." He raised his head, and his eyes were blazing with a passion Edward had seldom seen in a traditional vampire.

"For the first time in two hundred years, I was my own man again. I felt as if I had been shackled, and that those shackles had been cut. Everything that held me to everything I knew was gone. She was gone, and I was free. I began to wonder what that feeling of freedom meant, and the farther I ran, the more I realized that that was not the life I was meant to lead."

The room grew quiet after Demetri's speech. It was a moment before Carlisle seemed to remember that he was supposed to be questioning Demetri, feeling him out. "Do you regret what you did?"

Edward knew the answer before Demetri spoke. He would have known, even if he had not been able to read the other vampire's mind. He could see the answer in the set of his shoulders, in the way he stared at Heidi, and in the gaze he was receiving in return.

"Not for a second."

His answer shocked no one.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/ ONE WEEK LATER /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"I understand, now, why you do this." Renesmee's voice was solemn. "I never understood before."

"Ah, young one, you have so much to learn." The answering voice was deep and rumbly and Jacob smiled. "You also require the blessed elixir to make the trip more enjoyable. Your supply of this elixir seems to have run out."

There was a huff from Jacob's other side, and he chuckled again. "Ah, the blessed elixir. Oh, elixir that can only be found at home, in this rainest of places, cure all my ills!" Maybe he _had_ had one too many elixirs.

"Hey, grandpa, can you toss me another beer?"

Jacob opened one eye to check his line, and he could see Charlie's head in the cooler as he dug for another drink for Renesmee. He opened it for her and handed it back, grumbling something about her being ten years old. She raised her eyebrows.

"Do I _look_ like a ten year old?" She took a drink of her beer, still staring at Charlie. "Do I talk like one?"

"Act like one sometimes," Charlie grunted, but his eyes crinkled with the smile he tried to suppress. "Then there's this wedding nonsense..."

Jacob snorted. "Yeah, so I'm spending a lot of your son in law's money, and you're unhappy about that?"

Charlie raised his eyebrows, and Jacob heard his father laugh. "Never said I was unhappy, just that she's too young."

With the house crowded with more vampires than usual, Seth and Jacob had been nearly crawling out of their skins. They had just been tolerating the three newcomers when Tanya's family had arrived.

Four days ago, Edward sent the two of them packing with Renesmee and Alma, suggesting that Renesmee spend some much needed time with her grandfather. He'd also mentioned that Sue still needed to meet Alma. The flight to Seattle had been long but worth it. Renesmee had slept, cuddled under his arm, most of the trip. She had rubbed her eyes all the way to Port Angeles, then to the lodge, where she had fallen back asleep. Jacob had laughed when she'd grumbled something about hating to be a woman and how men did not understand monthly cycles. He'd tried to retort that her cycles were not monthly, that normal woman had to deal with monthly what she had to deal with twice a year, and had found himself spending the first night in Forks in the third, unused bed while listening to Seth and Alma go at it in the second bedroom. By the next morning, his fiancée was not in a better mood, and he had worked hard not to annoy her for the rest of the day. They'd spent the last three days with Billy and Charlie, who had taken vacation time to visit with his only grandchild, drinking beer, fishing, and not having sex. Today was by far the happiest she'd been. They were set to leave tomorrow afternoon, and Jacob had arranged for Seth and Alma to take Sue and Charlie to dinner in Seattle tonight. They'd promised to take their time getting home.

Jacob was jolted back to the present by a tug on his line. Quickly, he grabbed his pole and reeled in his line. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Renesmee watching him as he brought in his catch and gave the fish over to Charlie. "Here. Caught you dinner."

Charlie laughed. "Thanks."

Renesmee looked back out over the water as she propped her feet in front of her. "Fish for dinner tonight, then?" she asked.

"Nah." Charlie shook his head. "Seth's taking us up to Seattle for dinner. Wants to have one last meal with his mom before he goes."

Jacob focused on rebaiting his line as Renesmee frowned. "Is Alma going with?"

"Yep." Charlie opened another beer and took a swig before continuing. "She's a nice girl, I guess. A little scary sometimes, but I suppose if she makes Seth happy, that's what matters."

Billy chuckled, knowing from Jacob what Alma was fully capable of. "Long as he can handle her, I think they're a good pair. Opposites attract, and all that." Billy yawned, then glanced over at his son. "What are your plans for the night, Jake?"

Jacob shrugged and recast his line. "Just staying in, making dinner." Renesmee didn't know his plans, or that they had involved emptying their cabin at the Lodge until at least eleven tonight. "What are you hungry for, babe?" _Sex for two, please_.

She shrugged and recast her line. "Not fish, though." She made a face. As much as she loved fishing with Charlie, she hated the taste of fish. Apparently, they didn't have enough blood. She was definitely a steak kind of girl—one more thing to love about her.

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly, and dinner made way for evening. Jacob was finishing cleaning up the remnants of their meal when he heard the door to the cabin open and close, and heard Renesmee's soft footsteps lead around to the side of the house, where she slowly seated herself on the damp ground to look over the ocean. Putting down the pan he was holding, Jacob let himself outside and sat down next to her. Wordlessly, she pulled his arm up so that she could burrow into his side. He was struck again by just how small she was next to him. She was a little taller than her mother, closer to Esme's height, but she was still so little. She sighed contentedly as she turned her face to stare out over the ocean. His fingers traveled up to her hair to toy with her curls, wrapping one around his finger before letting it bounce back to its normal state.

Jacob hid his face in her hair and inhaled. "Let's just stay here. Not go back, you know?"

Renesmee laughed softly. "That would be nice. Just to be normal for a while, you know. Not 'normal,' like no ex-Volturi vampires in my house, no Tanya lusting after some guy she saw at the mall. Just _normal_. Have barbeques with food you buy at the store and didn't have to hunt for, go fishing, drink beer, watch the news. Normal."

Wrapping his arms a little tighter around her, Jacob sighed. Ever since she'd been young, the concept of "normal" was something Renesmee had always wondered about. She was the only one who had had no life away from vampires and blood and secrets. She had been born into this world, and had never known another. She loved spending time with their "normal" friends and family, like Charlie and Billy and Sue and the old pack in La Push. Jacob knew that, even though she'd never say it, she was jealous that they had the one thing she could never have.

"Maybe," Jacob said softly, "maybe someday soon you and I can just head out for a while. Get jobs, rent a house your parents didn't pay for, make it on our own for a while. We couldn't do it for more than five or six years, but it might be a nice change." He mussed her hair. "You'd have to live off donated blood for a while. I'm sure that'll be torture for you."

Her laugh was another thing Jacob loved about her. It was like those tinkling high notes she played on piano, mixed with something more beautiful than any music he'd ever heard. She smiled up at him, and her face lit up in the sudden breakthrough of light in the evening clouds. He was reminded of when she was still a baby, of the first time she had glowed in the sun. She could go out in the sunlight, but when people stared at her, it was because she radiated beauty. She virtually _glowed_.

"I think I could handle being normal for a little while, if you wouldn't mind." Reaching up, she brushed his hair away from his face. "Getting shaggy."

"Time for a haircut," he said, running a hand through the hair that was not lengthy enough to be called anything other than shaggy.

"Nah, I like you all shaggy." She grinned, and her chocolate eyes twinkled. "Gives me something to hold onto."

He couldn't remember going inside, or shutting off lights, or lying down in front of the fire, but at some point, he realized that the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on was kissing him, her fingers working at the buttons on his shirt. His lips left hers to find her neck, trailing up to her ear.

"How much sex do normal people have?" she gasped, her head falling back as Jacob's hands slid smoothly up her back, taking her shirt with them.

"Lots," he whispered, catching her earlobe between his teeth and tugging. "The happy ones have lots of sex. They do it every night." He flicked his fingers, and the black lace that separated her chest from his disappeared. "And they don't just do it one way, they do it every way." Her laughter caressed his ears as he flipped her onto her back and yanked her jeans off impatiently, and he grinned down at her. "The wives have sexy lingerie that they wear under their old sweat pants, and when you take off their clothes, it's exactly like what you've got on right now." He crawled down her body, kissing all the skin he passed, and stopped at the band to the emerald green lace tong he'd just uncovered. As he hooked his fingers into the elastic, he winked up at her. "It's no wonder I can't keep my hands off you for five minutes."

Her cries encouraged him as he kissed and licked and caressed her body. After a few minutes, he looked up at her, and he had to restrain himself from taking her immediately. The sky had opened up again, and the multicolored light of a beautiful sunset was hitting her body. And there were no clothes to hide her skin.

She was the only thing more beautiful than the sunset. Her whole body was glowing in the evening light. She was sitting up, watching him, and her eyes were glazed from her pleasure. Her lavender lids were drooping, and her full lips were parted as she gasped and moaned. Her curly hair had come loose from the clip she had been wearing earlier, and it was free and unrestrained as it hung around her face. Her entire body was covered in a light sheen of sweat, adding to the effect of the sunset when her back arched, and the light danced off the moisture between her breasts.

She was begging. Her head tilted back as her moans grew louder, and as she had said she loved to do, she wound her fingers into his hair, pulling him closer to her. The words for what she wanted were lost to her, and an image dominated his brain, put there by the one person with the power to do so.

In Renesmee's mind, she was on her back, her long legs flat against his torso. One hand toyed with her breast, while the other held tight to the thick blankets underneath them. She was biting down on her bottom lip as her face tilted toward the fire, lighting it up. He watched in fascination as his thought-self moved fluidly, muscles flexing down his back as he thrust into her. In her mind, his eyes were closed, his head tilted back.

Jacob hadn't realized that he was kissing her until he realized that he couldn't breathe. He broke off, gasping. He stroked her hair back from her sweaty face as he stared down at her in wonder.

"Is that what I look like to you?" he whispered in amazement.

"I told you you're beautiful," she said, and her voice was so full of adoration and love that Jacob had to kiss her again.

Then they set to work, a normal couple bringing to life an extraordinarily beautiful thought.

The next morning, Alice called, and Jacob was not sure what to make of her news. He only knew it would be enough to keep him from thinking about how many ways he'd taken Renesmee last night when he was around her father.

_a/n ........_

_Stay tuned._


	8. Anger, Blackmail, Confusion

**CHAPTER 8—ANGER, BLACKMAIL, CONFUSION**

So far, nothing had happened to turn the day upside down. The evening had turned to night beautifully, and everyone was having a good time. Alice had seen something fuzzy at the wedding, unable to see clearly through the wolves. She only knew it would be groundbreaking.

Seth didn't really care. There was an open bar and a beautiful blond woman in his lap. He was too drunk to truly know what was going on. Alma just wanted to get him home and into bed.

Jacob and Renesmee didn't care. They just wanted it over with so they could go on their honeymoon and do... Ugh. Disgusting.

Rosalie was busy fixing her hair while Emmett held the mirror for her. His ulterior motives for this involved the way she leaned to see her head, and the fact that her dress was very low cut.

Alice was worried, but Jasper was keeping her busy. In the back of her Porsche. The Porsche that had cost obscene amounts of money, and had been a gift.

Carlisle was concerned, but Alice hadn't seen anything bad happening. They would all live through whatever happened. Esme wasn't worried—she was busy taking pictures of her granddaughter.

"Edward?" The familiar, exasperated voice of his wife came from behind him. "Can you just relax?"

Edward sighed and turned his attention to Bella. She looked stunning. She wore a long blue dress that hugged her curves and plunged low enough to distract him. A smile crossed her face and she shook her head. "Can you relax and _not_ stare at my chest? This is our daughter's wedding."

"Our daughter's wedding would not have happened without our honeymoon." Reaching back, Edward tugged on Bella's hand and pulled her around and into his lap. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled deeply. "All weddings make me think of our honeymoon."

Bella giggled. "Is that why we always have crazy monkey sex when somebody gets married?"

Edward pondered this as he littered her neck and collarbone with kisses. He'd never noticed this pattern before, but it was true. After every wedding they had ever been to, they had had what Bella had referred to as "crazy monkey sex." When Renesmee had been younger, they had sent her to Jacob's. When she'd gotten older, she'd just known to stay away. The seventeen year old boy inside Edward did a little jig when he thought of what would go on in the bedroom tonight. Wedding sex was truly his favorite.

He was just thinking of sneaking Bella off to the car for a while when a new set of thoughts intruded on his mind.

_...rudest thing I've ever done, but they need to be made aware. Carlisle doesn't deserve to have to put up with this. He's been a good friend for years. Maybe he's a bit crazy, but it's no reason to do away with him. Should have stayed... Should have killed Caius when I had the chance..._

It wasn't possible, was it?

No one seemed to have noticed anything, except Bella. She was staring at him, a frown creasing her forehead, her butterscotch eyes worried. "Edward? What's wrong?"

Edward held up a finger. He was trying to focus on the thoughts of the man in the woods, just beyond the party. He couldn't seem him, but he was there.

_Edward?_ It was Alice. She was walking toward him, her face blank—Jasper was guiding her through the crowd, looking a bit anxious. The visions in her mind were hazy, but gaining solidarity. _It's going to happen, isn't it? Someone is here._

Slowly, Edward nodded at her. Jasper sat her down, frowning at the same spot where Edward knew the vampire was standing.

_Who is that? _Jasper's thoughts were alarmed. _He's so angry, but it's not directed at us._

"Aro," Edward started to say, but before he could explain who it was, Jasper suddenly buckled and fell to his knees.

"Jasper!" Alice shrieked.

The music stopped. The few guests who remained stared across to where Jasper was kneeling on the ground. His fingers curled into his hair, pulling at the blond curls. Edward focused on only Jasper, and what he found shocked him.

Jasper was fighting, drowning in feelings that were not his own. In the woods, the visitor was furious, and his rage was so intense that it had brought Jasper to his knees. He was trying to focus on something calm, trying to calm the man in the woods, but he could only feel rage. His head lifted, and Alice and Edward gasped together.

The eyes that had been golden earlier were now as black as a cloudless night. His lips were curled back over his teeth as he glared toward the trees.

_Oh, hell..._ The vampire in the trees took deep breaths and tried to calm himself. As he calmed, Jasper calmed with him. Reaching over, Jasper grasped Alice's hand as he gasped for breath.

The rest of the family were no longer standing by, idly shocked. Jacob was whispering frantically to Renesmee to get behind him. Tanya's clan had stepped closer to surround their table, and Emmett was on his feet, glaring into the trees, his biceps quivering.

Edward was about to explain the presence of someone in the woods, but frantic thoughts interrupted him.

_What is this? Edward? Can you hear me? I'm not here to hurt you, I swear! I can't move! What is this?_

Across the dance floor, Alma's electric gaze was focused on the same spot where Marcus stood frozen. The truly bizarre thing was that she did not seem to be aware of what she was doing.

"Alma?" Edward held out a hand to the blond girl at Seth's side. "He's not going to harm us. You can let him go."

Alma blinked, and Marcus relaxed. Terrified to hesitate a second longer, he bolted through the rest of the trees and out into the center of the gathered group.

No one moved. No one, not even the wolves or the hybrids, breathed. None of them were prepared for what they saw.

Marcus, the former Volturi leader, stood before them. He still wore his black robes, but they were ripped and torn by travel. His hair was matted, and his face was streaked with dirt.

His face...

The usual blank, nonplussed expression that usually dominated Marcus's features was absent. In its place was a plethora of emotions that Edward could read without using Jasper's observations.

Anger. Pain. Rage. Betrayal. And, when his eyes flicked to where Carlisle stood, all consuming relief.

In Marcus's mind, Edward saw centuries of betrayal that made him wish he could still weep. Marcus's entire existence with Aro and Caius had never been his choice. He had been Chelsea's prisoner, just like the rest of them.

Carlisle was stepping toward Marcus, who raised his arms in greeting. The two met in the middle, and Carlisle smiled at his friend.

"Marcus," he said, his voice betraying his curiosity. "It's good to see you."

"I apologize," Marcus said, looking toward Renesmee and Jacob. "I did not intend to wreck your wedding. I only wished to speak with all of you at once."

Renesmee stared open mouthed at Marcus. Her only memories of Marcus were of meeting the Volturi when she was young, and before Edward could stop her, she blurted out, "You're the one who didn't want to kill me."

Marcus laughed, and Edward started. It was a sound he'd never heard before. Marcus's laugh was warm and inviting, the kind of laugh a favorite uncle had. "Yes, my dear, I was the one who voted not to kill you." He smiled at Carlisle. "My vote still stands." He glanced over to where Heidi, Demetri, and Felix had been playing poker before he'd arrived. "I assume, my friends, you have already informed them of the situation?" He turned back to Carlisle, and his smile faded. Frustration crossed his face. "Perhaps we could speak alone."

"Certainly."

Edward smiled. Marcus had a very good plan.

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It was late. The party had finally died down, Jacob and Renesmee had headed off to Rio for their honeymoon, and the remaining family had convened in the dining room.

Why she was situated with the family, she had no idea. Alma just fidgeted with her bracelet, a gift from Seth. She paid attention for him, smiling as she ran her fingers through his hair.

Open bar plus Seth apparently meant no sex, but he was very cute all passed out with his head on the table.

Emmett seemed amused by him, as well. Seth's shaggy hair now had a number of little braids and had been filled with petals plucked from a flower arrangement. Photos had been taken, and Alma rolled her eyes as Emmett sent the images to Jacob via his phone.

"Emmett?" Carlisle cleared his throat at his son. "Are you paying attention?"

"Blackmail, lies, general bull shit." Emmett's fingers flashed across the buttons as he texted. "Got it."

Carlisle sighed, and Alma could see that he was more than a bit embarrassed by Emmett's apparent lack of interest.

A moment later, the phone slipped from Emmett's limp fingers and he slumped onto the table. With a wink at Rosalie, Alma proceeded to put flower petals into Emmett's hair.

"How do you do that?" Marcus asked, watching, intrigued, as Alma kept Emmett sedated.

"He's fairly calm right now." Alma wedged in a bit of pink Gerber daisy. "I'm not sure why. He's got a head full of flowers."

Emmett twitched a finger, but then went even more limp. Across the table, Alma could see Jasper smirking at his brother. She grinned at him, recalling a conversation she'd had earlier on how deadly a pair the two of them could potentially be—Jasper's calm with Alma's sedation. "Thanks."

Jasper smiled, and nodded toward the limp Emmett. "Can we put make up on him sometime?"

Alma giggled. "I think you and I are going to get along great."

Marcus smiled. "It's so nice that the two of you found each other. Carlisle tells me you just arrived, Alma? It must be nice for you to finally have Jasper."

Alma nodded slowly, a little confused by Marcus's words. Her concentration slipped a bit, and Emmett bolted from the table. She ignored him. "We're not... together." She frowned at Marcus. "He's got Alice, and I'm with Seth."

Marcus frowned, then jerked in his seat slightly, as if he'd been kicked.

Jasper glanced at Edward. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Edward was staring, wide eyed, at Alma. "We can talk more about this in the morning. Alma, you should get Seth home." He nodded at the still unconscious Seth.

Two hours later, Alma lay awake in the room she shared with Seth. Seth's snoring was making sleep difficult, and she sighed angrily and turned over, punching her pillow.

A soft knock on the door made her irritation flare, but she felt herself calming almost instantly. She had no doubt who was at her door, and she sighed in relief.

"Can you please put me out of my misery?" she asked. The last thing she heard before falling asleep was Jasper's deep chuckle as he headed slowly down the hall.

_a/n We're slowly going places. Marcus has a plan! Yay! What is the plan, you ask? Watch for updates... In the meantime, I'm going to search for the elusive "vacation" part of "summer vacation." Review!_


	9. Live Free or Die

**CHAPTER 9—LIVE FREE OR DIE**

Felix sat for a long time on the Cullen family's front porch, contemplating the silver car with New Hampshire plates that was being lovingly washed by its owner. He propped his feet in front of him, thinking of many things, but mostly the license plate. To his left, the door opened, and a blond woman stepped out.

"You've been out here for a long time," Tanya said softly, sitting down next to him on the old porch swing. "You know, if it's a fixation with cars you've got, you really should talk to Rosalie."

Down in the driveway, Edward snorted. "I know enough about cars, thank you very much."

"He can't argue that Rosalie's far superior to him, though." Tanya winked, and her eyes locked with his. Her brow scrunched delicately. "Your eyes look strange today," she said softly, reaching up to brush a cool hand across his forehead and move his hair out of his face.

Felix raised his eyebrows. "_My_ eyes look strange? Try looking in the mirror."

"Felix has been trying out the vegetarian lifestyle," Edward said, not looking up as he scrubbed at a spot on his new Volvo. "He's been doing a good job, so far. Hasn't had a slip in almost a month now."

Tanya's golden eyes sparkled excitedly. "Really?" She stared into his eyes again, this time with a purpose. "I can see—they're starting to change. Another month or so, and you'll fit right in here." Her smile was nearly blinding, and Felix had to remind himself that, no matter how attractive she seemed, it was likely a succubus trick. Probably. Would be nice if it wasn't, but probably was...

"Do you think you'll stay here?" she asked, and Felix glanced around, forcing his eyes from her.

"I doubt it," he said. "Don't get me wrong—I've had nothing but good experiences here. It's just a very large family. I'd hate to make it bigger." He smiled at Tanya. "Harder to conceal, you know."

"You know, there's only five of us in Alaska." She seemed genuinely excited that Felix had decided to really consider a different lifestyle. "You could stay with us, if you want. It gets very dark in the mountains, you know." Her eyes were still alight, but with mischief now. "It's quite fun, you know, to go outside and play in the snow when it's dark outside all day long. The winter solstice is our favorite time of year."

"I'll think about it," he said, trying not to sound too excited at the prospect. _Succubus,_ he reminded himself.

"And there are all kinds of places to hide." She was still chatting on, trying to sell him on the benefits of her home. "I mean, it's a big mountain. We can be as loud as we want, and no one will come to question us or tell us to quiet down." There was a slightly sultry edge to her voice, and Felix found himself fighting to stay where he was, not to attack her, vowing to come away with her and to do whatever she desired.

Felix's nerves were at their edge. The longer she talked, the harder it was to sit still. "Would you excuse me?" He stood, smiling apologetically. "I need to speak with Demetri and Marcus."

He all but bolted from the porch, stopping inside the door to refocus his brain. His ears, however, were still on Tanya.

He could almost hear the pout in her voice, and he smiled. "What did I do?"

"Nothing," Edward said, and Felix was grateful that Edward seemed to be content not to tell Tanya that she had an eavesdropper. "You were just yourself."

She huffed. "Please tell me I'm not up against another man like you," she begged. "I think I'll just have to give up entirely."

Edward laughed, although Felix was a little confused. _Another man like you_?

"You're not up against another me, at all." He heard Edward's footsteps crossing the drive and climbing the stairs, heard him sit in a chair on the porch on the other side of the wall. "Felix is quite attracted to you. I think he might even like you."

"Then why won't he ever talk to me longer than ten minutes?"

"He just thinks it's your succubus tricks," Edward said, laughing. "He doesn't realize that there are actually feelings behind the pull."

There was a pause, then, "Am I using my tricks?"

"Quite heavily, I'd say."

Another pause. "I'm not doing it on purpose. I just really like him."

"I know that, but perhaps you should consider telling him sometime." Edward's voice was gentle. "He's worth a shot, Tanya. You're half the reason he's been trying to change his hunting habits, you know. He really wants a different life, now that he can actually try for it. Did you see him staring at the car before?"

Tanya's voice was confused. "Yes."

"He was actually looking at the license plates. 'Live free or die.' It's the state motto."

"Alright." Tanya's voice was clearly full of confusion. "What does that have to do with Felix?"

"He's finally free," Edward said softly. "Now that he's had a taste, it's all he wants. He'd rather die than rejoin the Volturi. He's quite content with his freedom, but he'd like more. He wants to be completely unrestrained, if you understand my drift."

There was a pause, then, "Oh!"

"Exactly." Felix could almost hear Edward grimace. "He's been alone for so long, but he's just worried that if he starts chasing you, it will kill the entire 'freedom' idea. He has no desire to be anyone's slave."

"He wouldn't be my slave," Tanya said indignantly.

"Again, he's the one you should be talking to." Edward sighed heavily, and got to his feet.

Felix bolted before he had to face him.

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The rain pattered against the windows as the conversations continued downstairs about what would happen when the remaining Volturi arrived to administer "justice" on the Cullen family and their allies. It seemed that Marcus was filling in the family on the several plans and back ups that had been in place when he had left.

Alma had already spoken her piece, promising to practice with Jasper. The two of them had impressed Marcus with their temporary takeover of Emmett on the night of the wedding, and part of his master plan was to freeze the Volturi leaders and guard if things got too out of control. It would be difficult, but according to Alice, they had a month and a half to practice. Carlisle was calling those who had stood with them the time before, and so far, all he had contacted were on their way.

So much for privacy.

Alma burrowed farther into Seth's side, smiling when he grunted a little in his sleep and pulled her closer. She felt completely safe in his strong arms, arms that were strong enough to hold their own against her. Staring up at his face, she smiled and let her fingers trace over his features.

Seth Clearwater was the embodiment of perfection, as far as she was concerned. In some ways, he was just a big kid, content to romp around the house, getting in play fights with Jacob and teasing his adopted family members for one thing or another. But in other ways, he was a man, one who enjoyed romping in bed instead of the living room.

He could be gentle with her, too. She'd never had a gentle lover—no one had been physically able to be gentle with her. He could be gentle, and she could be rough. But he loved her, for some strange reason, always seeming to know what she wanted, and always willing to give it to her.

Now, he seemed to sense that his lover wanted her little dose of pillow talk, and his brown eyes opened. He smiled at her sleepily and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"What's on your mind, Goldilocks?" he asked, using his ridiculous nickname while he toyed with her blonde curls.

She smiled up at him. "Did you have a nice nap?" she asked, propping her chin on his chest an inch or two from his face.

"Mm-hmm." Seth tugged on her hips a little until she was lying fully on top of him. He let his fingers trace over the skin of her back, and her eyes fluttered closed. His skin was like silk, and it felt amazing against hers. He was so warm. "You sleep at all?"

"No." She stared up at him, reaching a hand up to run through his soft hair. "I've just been thinking."

"Always dangerous," Seth teased. "About what?"

"Family," she said, and Seth reached down to take her hand.

There was no ignoring it, at this point. Everyone in this house had something she didn't—family. She'd never had a family, and had only had one or two people she counted as friends. Her story was one that she had already told Seth.

Alma's memories of her mother were vague. She'd been beautiful, with violet eyes and dark, flowing hair. She'd died soon after Alma's birth, and the infant Alma had been quickly found by a bitter Maria, still furious at the loss of her best soldier. Alma hadn't realized until coming to visit the Cullens that Jasper was the very soldier she'd lost.

Alma's childhood and earlier years were much the same story as Jasper's. Taught by Maria to fight from early on, taught to use her strange power of stopping anyone in their tracks against her enemies, told that her mother was some voodoo queen and her father had only used her mother for a moment's sexual pleasure. Alma had left when Maria had refused to tell her anything about her father, even though it was obvious that she knew who he was. She'd relocated to Texas, drawn to the gulf and the open water, and had remained there since the 1970s, occasionally living in the city for a change.

"You realize you're the first man I've ever trusted?" she asked, pulling away from the bitter memories of her past and focusing on the man underneath her.

Seth smiled and spread his arms wide. "I'm just immediately lovable," he said, laughing. "Been beating women off with a stick for years."

Alma raised an eyebrow. "That so."

"Yep." He folded his hands behind his head. "Women love me. Want to open up to me."

"I recall you telling me that I was the first woman who really 'opened up' to you," she said, teasingly.

"My lack of sexual experience means nothing," he said, grinning. "You said so yourself. And I think about an hour ago, you referred to me as a sex god, didn't you?"

"Smug," she said, and laughed. She rested her cheek on her chest, and focused on the rise and fall of Seth's broad chest. His breathing was slowing before she asked her next question. She'd never asked it of him, and he'd never asked her. Maybe they were both scared.

"Will you stay with me?"

Seth's eyes opened, and he looked a bit confused. "Yeah, babe. Where would I go?"

"No." Alma bit her lip, a bit nervous. "I mean, will you _stay_ with me. You know, like, the not leaving kind of stay." She looked back down, away from his face.

He pulled her chin up so that she had to look at him.

"Alma Thomas, I couldn't ever leave you, even if I tried." He smiled down at her, and it was her smile, the one he gave her when she beat herself up. "I love you."

Alma shimmied her way up to his face to kiss him. "I love you, too," she whispered.

Seth's hands trailed down her back as they kissed, and it wasn't long before she forgot all about her preoccupations about her past.

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The house was quiet of activity for the first time all day, the only sounds the rain outside and the breathing of Seth and Alma upstairs. Edward sat at the table with Bella and Marcus. The three of them were silent, glancing up every so often to be sure that Alma still slept on.

"I suppose nothing should surprise me at this point," Marcus said softly, with a little laugh. "Still, I didn't know I could do that."

"You're never come up against anything like this before," Edward said. "It's interesting, to be certain."

"Interesting?" Bella repeated. "What are we going to do?"

"Not a clue." Edward glanced up again, then sighed. "I don't know how she'd react if we just told her. I don't know how _either_ of them would. It's nothing they've thought about before—the only mutual thoughts they have of that aspect of their pasts is to be glad that it is in the _past._ I know he's quite content to leave it there, not dredge it up at all."

"Have you found anything in either of their minds to think that it may be true?" Marcus sounded almost as if he were afraid of an affirmative answer.

Edward's face hardened. "Yes," he said softly. "They both remember quite well. He actually thought for a moment that her eyes were completely unique, until he had a very brief flash of her. It's there—they just don't realize it."

"Perhaps we should call—"

"Absolutely not." Edward had seen where Marcus's thoughts were going, and he knew from the mood Alma was in that Marcus's idea would be a disaster. "Alma would throw a fit if we made that call."

"Either way," Bella said softly, "we can't keep this a secret for too much longer."

"How would anyone know?" Marcus's voice was a bit confused.

"Maggie's on her way," Edward said, turning to Marcus. "She knows when she's being lied to, but she also knows when you're keeping something from her or only telling half truths. Maggie being Maggie, she would confront us in front of the entire family, probably accuse us of not telling her everything about the situation, when the real problem is something completely unrelated to the Volturi."

It was quiet for a minute. Then—

"You've really thought this out, haven't you?" Bella asked, a bit scathingly. "This isn't a game, Edward. This isn't some sport you can mess with. The longer we don't tell them, the more angry they're going to be when we do. And personally, I'd rather not deal with both of them being pissed."

"So are we going to tell them?" Marcus glanced toward Edward.

A heavy sigh slipped from Edward's lips, and he reached out to take his wife's hand. She squeezed it hard.

_You know it's the right thing to do._ Her thoughts were clear as her eyes stared into his. _You know he'd want to know, especially since he thinks everything from then is a horrible memory he has to repress. Maybe it would help both of them._

Edward turned his gaze to Marcus, and answered him quietly. "Tomorrow, when they're both here, we'll tell them."

"You mean before our company gets here," Bella said quietly.

"If we get the chance." Edward sighed. "Sometimes, I really wish we lived alone."

_a/n Have I peaked your curiosity yet? Leave me reviews or PM me—I feel like this chapter may need some editing, but I want to see if you know why. Sometimes I wish I could just skip to the end, but that would kind of suck and you'd be _really_ confused. If you ever have questions, all of this is worked out in my head and there's a master plan with a rough draft for the journey. I'm spastic that way..._


	10. Friendly Information

_a/n This chapter is dedicated to cmarie1234. You have uncovered part of the master plan, so it must be exposed for all to see! And Savvy Cullen--please don't go crazy. I don't have enough pills to go around. Enjoy!_

_a/n 2 WOW this is a long chapter! Sorry. Hang in there, pay attention to detail, and have fun imagining Jake and Nessie's two person nudist beach.  
_

**CHAPTER 10—FRIENDLY INFORMATION  
**

Jacob leaned back in his lounge chair and folded his hands behind his head. It was another beautiful day that promised to stay beautiful, at least until tomorrow when there was a good chance of rain. At the moment, though, the sun was beaming down on his skin, warming it further. Turning his head to the side, he stared at the woman who had stood by his side at an altar two weeks before.

"Honey?"

"Yes, Jake."

"Why can't we lay out like this at home?"

"Because I think it would restart and then stop my dad's heart if he saw us lounging naked in the front yard." She smiled cheekily at him, lifting her sunglasses to gaze unabashedly at his body.

Jacob faced forward. "Understandable. One more reason for us to move out."

"I can't wait," she moaned, and Jacob couldn't help looking at her. She was too damn sexy when she started to make those noises. "Six more months, and we get to pretend to be normal for a while!" She sighed happily, and he watched the rise and fall of her chest. "I've never gotten to be normal. Ever."

"I guess that's true." Jacob mulled it over for a moment, then realized that he may have to give his new wife some pointers on life in the real world, as it was something she had never truly experienced. Every other member of the family had, at some point, been a normal human being. Renesmee had been born into the world of the supernatural, and normal was an obscure concept for her. He shoved this thought to the back of his mind and went back to blatantly ogling her while she went back to reading. After a few minutes, she seemed to stop reading, and she glanced back to Jacob with an eyebrow cocked.

"Was there something you wanted, Jacob?"

He wasted no time in getting to her feet and hoisting her into a fireman's carry. She squealed all the way back to the house.

Later, when his appetite for her was momentarily satiated, Jacob lay, his face against her belly, an arm dangling off the bed, moments away from sleep. An annoying jingle from the bedside table made him groan. He reached for his phone, frowning at the caller ID.

"Seth's getting better," Renesmee said, running her fingers through Jacob's messy hair. "At least this time he called after."

Jacob flipped the phone open. "What, Seth?"

"Hey, man, I'm sorry to call you on your honeymoon," he said. He sounded as if he were bouncing up and down with excitement. "I just wanted to tell you Alma and me are going to come with you guys to Denver!"

Renesmee lifted her head to look down at Jacob. She was smiling, and she took his hand to voice her pleasure in this chain of events. Alma and Renesmee had formed a kind of bond, both entirely supernatural creatures and both in love with another supernatural creature.

"Great, man," Jake said, smiling a little. He wouldn't admit it, but he was extremely relieved that Seth was going to come with. That would be someone for him to talk to, hang out with, right away.

"Yeah, she's on her way back to Texas right now to pack up her things." Seth's voice became a bit subdued.

Jacob frowned. "Why aren't you going with?"

Seth heaved a heavy sigh. "She said she wanted to go alone. Said she had some business to take care of and she needed to do it on her own." Jacob could see Seth's face in his mind's eye, knew the pain he would be feeling. It was hard to be apart from your imprint, and this was the first time since they'd met that Seth had been separated from Alma. "Doesn't help that Edward and Bella are pissed off."

Renesmee, hearing this, frowned at Jacob. She held her hand out for the phone, turned it on speaker. "Seth?"

"Oh, hey, Ness." His voice wasn't too surprised. "How are you?"

"Fine." She rested the phone on the bedside table and went back to playing with Jacob's hair. "What do you mean my parents are pissed off?"

"I don't know why," he said. "They left for the night and Alma took off before they left. When they got back, Bella started freaking out. She said they'd needed to talk to her, and I said she had her phone, but they wouldn't have any of that. Said they needed to talk to her alone, face to face. It's just going to have to wait until they get back. The only thing is, Alice is starting to act kind of worried. She thinks it's getting close to time for the Volturi to get here. She thinks the schedule has been bumped up. She's worried because she thinks she missed some decision or conversation. Carlisle's getting everyone assembled. Everyone should be here when you get back."

Jacob heaved a sigh and hid his face against Renesmee's stomach again. "This is getting out of hand," he muttered, too muffled for Seth to hear.

"I'm going to go," Seth said. "I'm interrupting your last days of peace and quiet. I'll talk to you guys later."

The screen flashed briefly then went back to the wallpaper as Seth hung up. Renesmee sighed softly, and Jacob looked up to find her smiling.

"I don't know about peace and quiet," she said, running her hand across his face. "Life's not much fun without a little hell raising."

Jacob smiled back, despite his new worries. "Wanna raise some hell, baby?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

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Leaving Texas. Two words Alma Thomas never thought she'd say. She was moving. Sure her house would still be here, sure she could visit any time, but she was moving away. Her life could not be in Texas. She couldn't let Seth be so selfless as to move away from everyone to live with just one person who didn't have anyone.

And for the first time, she was going to have a family.

Never in her life had Alma had a family. Certainly Maria did not count. She wasn't family, just a woman who had once happened upon a very strange baby. Her few "friends" barely counted. All of them were nomads, and not very good at calling to say hello.

No, she would have a real family with Seth. Alma had left the house early, having cemented their plans late at night at Seth's little house on the edge of the Cullen family's property. Alma was going to move to New Hampshire, where she would stay with Seth until they felt ready to move out on their own for a while. Plans were in motion for them to live in a little house down the road from where Jacob and Renesmee were planning to move in six months. They would live alone and visit the Cullens from time to time.

Alma shoved the last of her boxes in the front seat of her new car. Seth had insisted that her little Nissan was not going to make it back to Texas in one piece, and had convinced her to take him up on the spare car he'd been working on for her. It was a behemoth, an old muscle car from the sixties, and it was perfect for her. It certainly had room to hold her belongings. She slammed the heavy door shut and stared up at the little house, heaving a sigh as she began to walk back toward it. _This_ was why she had wanted to come alone.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her face was set into a neutral expression. Her dark hair hung straight down over her shoulders, and her legs, encased in dark blue jeans, were crossed. She wore a red halter that contrasted sharply with her pale skin, and that plunged below her bust line. Her eyes were a fresh crimson, the color that only came just after the hunt. The only show of true emotion on her face was the tiny dent that appeared just between her eyes.

"What's the problem, Maria, homeless again?" Alma sneered, stopping once she reached the top of the stairs.

Maria gave Alma a little sarcastic smirk. "Oh, yes, Alma, I'm just dying to come and stay with you." In one quick, almost invisible movement, Maria was on her feet. "Weren't you going to come say goodbye?" she simpered. Alma knew what she was doing. She'd done it before.

"You didn't stop me from leaving last time. What the hell makes you think this time is any different?" Alma leaned against the banister, taking her weight off her feet and settling into what would either end peacefully or with Maria in the jigsaw position while Alma left her to resituate herself.

"Because last time, you just left me." Maria gestured to the house and the beach off behind in the distance. "This time, you're leaving your heritage behind."

Alma felt her face go automatically stony. "I don't know my heritage. How can I leave what I never found?"

Alma knew little about where she'd come from. She barely recalled her mother, and what little she knew of her father came from Maria's cryptic information. Two things Alma knew for certain about her father was that he had been a Texan soldier, and that, according to Maria, he had been entirely self centered.

She'd never told her how he died...

"True," Maria said. "But weren't you getting close a while back?"

"If it were possible for me to find out anything about my mother _or_ my father, you would never encourage it," Alma spit out. "You'd redirect my attention elsewhere. That's your way." Alma crossed her arms as Maria took a small step closer. "You're just a lying bitch. You probably don't even know who they were."

Maria hissed and was in Alma's face a split second later. Not an easy task, considering Alma's height, but she managed. "Don't speak of what you don't know, little girl."

Alma laughed, and Maria took a step back. "You don't know a thing. What reason would you have for keeping something like that a secret?"

"I have my reasons," Maria blurted, then turned and returned to her seat on the bench.

Alma snorted. She could feel the dam breaking. Time spent with the Cullens, time spent realizing what a family was, was time that had seen Alma begin to truly question who she was. Years—decades—of pent up anger at Maria were about to come out, and there was a good chance it wouldn't end well. She wanted to make sure to really give it to Maria before the fight broke out and she had to make a run for it.

"'Your reasons'?" she growled. Behind her, she heard a soft _pat pat _as rain began to fall. Lovely. "What reasons could a vindictive piece of work like you have for keeping a secret? You love to ruin people's lives. It's what you do, Maria. You find someone with something you want." Alma started pacing across the porch. "You exploit whatever it is. You don't care about the cost, you don't care if it ruins that person, as long as you get what you want. But what you never plan for, what happens every time, is that you get figured out and dumped—left behind like the garbage you are! And what do you have to show for yourself?" Alma laughed bitterly, watching the minute changes in Maria's face that showed that this coal-raking was exactly what the conniving vampire had had coming for years. "You have a little patch of area that you call your territory, no friends, no home, no belongings. You have nothing!"

The red eyes were out of focus. Maria's gaze was unfocused. Five minutes ago, she had looked like the embodiment of a sex symbol. Now, she looked washed up and older. Tired. Impossible.

"I have a little bit of dignity," she said softly, and the tone of her voice took Alma off guard. "I have the satisfaction of knowing that I helped an old friend find a new life." Maria's face became neutral again, and she seemed to be steeling herself for something.

Alma stood expectantly, waiting. Maria did not move, and Alma stayed still long enough for the rain to build to a steady patter on the lawn. When the stalemate had gone on for five minutes, Alma relaxed. She smiled easily at Maria, letting her eyes lighten as she reached into her back pocket, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

"I've got all the time in the world, lady," she said, exhaling as she made herself comfortable on the railing again.

The minutes ticked by, on and on. Slowly, too. One by one, cigarettes disappeared from Alma's pack. Maria did not move, did not change the point of her gaze from where it rested, somewhere out in the yard.

Finally, when it was that time between day and night, made hard to distinguish by the rain, Maria took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Her eyes closed, and her face shifted from the neutral expression to one of pain.

"I never thought there would be any way you could possibly find out," Maria said quietly, and her voice was full of such an ageless pain that Alma was a little startled. She suddenly looked older again, like a woman who had been through countless battles until, now, she finally lost. "I never wanted to tell you, because he's still my friend. I don't have many friends, you see, and I like to count whomever I can." She opened her eyes and smiled at Alma. "I was afraid if I told you, it would ruin everything for him, but you'll probably figure it out anyway. I'm surprised you haven't already." Maria sighed heavily. "What do you think you know about your father?"

In all the years she'd searched for _anything_, Alma never found anything that matched up with her deductions. Her father's last name must have been Thomas—it was the name Maria had given her. He'd been from a bigger city in Texas. He'd been fairly young when he'd been changed, around the time of the fight in Galveston. She assumed he'd be blonde haired, like her—her mother had been dark haired. He'd probably had blue eyes, too, and electric like hers, but she'd have little way of seeing that in an old black and white picture.

She'd never found anything on him, though. The pictures she'd found of soldiers named Thomas hadn't looked anything like her, had been too old, or too young. They hadn't "died" at the right time, or in the right place.

Knowing that many, if not all, of her assumptions were wrong, Alma nevertheless fed Maria the information she'd asked for. When she was done, Maria was actually smiling with genuine amusement. Alma hadn't seen her smile like that in sixty years.

"Your father's last name wasn't Thomas," she said, and her laugh darkened. "Thomas was simply the name of a man I'd fed on earlier that evening. I'd been a bit down in the dumps recently, you see. My best fighter had just left me two weeks before. Disappeared, without saying goodbye or anything." Maria smiled bitterly. "In any case, I caught the scent of human blood, but it wasn't the one I had just finished with. I followed the scent, and there you were, crawling from the corpse of a woman who should have been dead a month before.

"Annette fancied herself a voodoo queen of some sort—said she was in touch with the spirits and the such. She tried to sell me on her crafts, but I wasn't fooled. I wrapped her up and took her as a present to my friend—she was lovely, you see, and very young." Maria's eyes were drifting out of focus, to a time long ago. "He'd been out of sorts lately, and I wanted to cheer him up. I left her with him, told him to have fun, and went out hunting again. I returned hours later, and she was gone. I _assumed_ he'd finished with her and disposed of the corpse, but I was wrong."

Alma's head was spinning, working to keep up with this information. God knew Maria would never volunteer it again, and she wasn't going to miss a bit of it.

"When I found her a month later, I was shocked. What shocked me more was the little creature making its way out. I didn't know what it was, at first, and I was getting ready to kill it when it made a little noise, and I realized that it was a baby." Maria folded her hands in her lap and stared straight into Alma's eyes. "I knew, right away when I saw you, who you had to be. I never did any research. I knew it instantly, figured it out in about five minutes, and I knew who you were. You had the same hair, and your eyes were shaped just the same way. They were the strangest shade of electric blue, a shade I only remember seeing once before. They were the eyes _he'd_ had before I changed him. I raised you, knowing you'd be special. The perfect replacement for your father, who wandered off in a fit of depression."

"I don't understand," Alma said slowly.

Maria didn't seem to hear. Her eyes moved to stare into the distance again. "I finally heard from him ten years later. He'd met a girl he said was the perfect woman, and had joined a large coven in Minnesota, of all places. I thought he'd never leave Texas and there he was with a mate and a very peculiar diet, living in the snowy wilderness." She smiled softly, sadly. "He'd entirely forgotten about Annette by then, he was so focused on her. I asked about Annette. I lied and told him I'd seen her out and about, and he said he'd been unable to kill her. He begged me not to tell Alice about her—he'd used her body, you see, and he felt guilty for not mentioning to Alice that there had been someone between myself and her. I knew that his life would alter again if he found out about you, and so I kept you hidden. I promised never to tell Alice about Annette, and I promised myself never to tell him about you. You two are like gravity, though," she said, laughing a bit. "Doesn't matter that you're on opposite borders of the country, you still managed to find him."

Alma shook her head slowly, still a bit disbelieving. "You never told me any of this. You let me make assumptions."

"I couldn't. It would have given away my secret. And," she added, losing steam now, "if I still had you, I still had Jasper, in a way. I was too selfish to give you up."

Alma slid to the porch floor, her eyes closing.

Maria stood up and flitted to Alma's side. "Take care of yourself. Tell Jasper I said hello." Maria smiled, then she was gone.

Alma sat alone on the porch for a long time, going over what Maria had told her.

_He begged me not to tell Alice_...

He didn't want Alice to know about her mother. He was worried that something would go wrong. If she told him, it would be inevitible that Alice would find out.

She didn't want to make his life harder...

Alma Thomas had not cried in a long time. She usually refused tears. Tears weren't for tough girls. But Alma wasn't tough any more. How much could one person shoulder before they collapsed? She wasn't Atlas—she couldn't hold up the entire world.

Later, as she drove back through the rain that continued, like her tears, to fall, no matter how far away she got, she steeled herself. She only had to tell one person, and hope that that one person would keep her secret, as he kept the secrets of so many others.

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"Foolproof." Caius's smile was deadly. "This is exactly what we needed to happen. With this, we can still strike the Cullen family where it hurts, and they can be allowed to live as examples."

Aro smiled kindly at the girl sitting in the corner. "My darling Raquel, you have truly given us reason to destroy an entire species of beings."

Raquel glared at Aro. "My brother will know that something is wrong when I do not return home," she spat. "And your plan is far from foolproof." Raquel's smile was vindictive. "There are more of us than you can possibly know, better hidden than you can imagine. We blend in. You can't kill all of us."

"It doesn't matter, dear," Aro said, and in an instant he was behind her, his lips at her throat. "We don't need to kill all of you. Just enough to make a point. And you, dearest," he said, his voice changing to a hiss, "will be the first to pay."

_a/n Okay. We should be done with filler chapters, blah blah chapters, and craziness. Don't think we'll be seeing much more of Maria, so I had to redeem her. Moving on! Review if you so feel the urge--I do read them, I promise._


	11. Turning Tables

_a/n Another few chapters and this should be done. Hopefully before I go back to school, but we'll see._

_In the meantime, I'm uploading a new story here shortly that you should check out so I know if it sucks or not :)  
_

**CHAPTER 11—TURNING TABLES **

The house was very quiet. It was truly the calm before the storm. Most of the vampires had left for last minute hunting, so as to be as strong as possible. Somewhere on the first floor, the sound of the occasional turning page announced that someone was still home and reading—probably Carlisle. The only sound that mattered to Seth was the sound of the heartbeat next to him, and the sound of air entering and leaving another set of lungs.

Alma had returned last week, her eyes bloodshot and her body weary. She'd crawled into bed for two days before she finally said anything to him. She'd wanted water, and for him to sit with her. He'd held her for the rest of the afternoon while she shook in his arms. She'd scared him a bit with the incessant sobbing, but he was completely helpless to calm her. Edward had been no help, always saying that Alma would tell him in her own time what was wrong.

She was a little better now, but she still seemed weary, and her practice sessions with Jasper didn't seem to help. The pair were working on creating calm then striking with Alma's incapacitating gift. Alma stopping everything was a last resort, the card they all hoped they would not have to play. Seth couldn't understand if it was her desire to fight or her annoyance at having to stay hidden that was upsetting her. Of course, it could be something else entirely, but something about the practice sessions made them suddenly unappealing to her.

The only times she'd smiled or laughed in the past three days had been when they were alone. Like right now. Glancing down, Seth felt a little relief at the small smile still lingering on her lips. Her head rested on his chest, and her body was snuggled up against his side. Her blonde curls fanned out around her, covering his torso, and her lavender eyelids had not so much as twitched since she'd fallen asleep an hour ago.

Gently, so as not to wake her, Seth tugged at the sheet that hid her body from his eyes. Her pale skin seemed brighter in the darkness, and he skimmed his hand up and down her side, admiring the contrast he found there. He traced the curves of her hips, her butt, her breasts, praying she wouldn't wake so he could simply gaze down at her. After a few minutes, he sighed and leaned back, pulling her a little closer. He felt her smile against his skin.

"Don't start what you can't finish," she said, her voice muffled by his skin.

"I didn't mean to wake you up." Seth turned his head to gaze at her, watching as her blue eyes opened, darkened with sleep. "You can go back to sleep."

"Don't want to," she said. Her hands, which had been resting on his chest, began to slide down his body. "I'd rather stay awake with you."

"I was just getting ready to go to sleep." Seth gritted his teeth, trying to think of something—anything—to keep him from...

"You don't want to stay awake just a little longer?" Her smile had turned into a smirk, and she squeezed her hand around him. He moaned, unable to stop the sound from leaving his lips, and she grinned. "See? Won't do you any harm at all."

"No harm." Seth's lips seemed to take on a mind of their own as he started kissing all the flesh he could find. "Very good idea. Don't really need sleep."

Her little gasps of pleasure told him she wanted him to continue, and he rolled her onto her back, the better to continue with his exploration of Alma's perfect body. He found all the little places that made her gasp, kissed the spots that made her moan, and caressed the crevices that made her whisper his name in pleading tones. When they finally came together, he sat back on his knees and cradled her in his massive arms while she moved over him, whispering over and over that he loved her...

The world seemed to spin a little faster when she whispered it back every single time.

In the afterglow, it was easy to forget that anything was wrong, that the Volturi were to arrive the next day, and Seth had no problem slipping asleep, his face buried in the soft flesh of her belly.

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Layers of strategy were in place. Bella would shield while Benjamin stood at the ready in case a distraction was needed. Siobhan was visualizing another peaceful outcome. Jacob was readying the wolves, and Emmett was dancing deadly circles with Garrett. Nahuel was corralling his sisters, voicing his annoyance that his most volatile sister, Raquel, had not arrived to help.

Alma was getting dressed very slowly.

She needed to be as inconspicuous as possible. Her place would be toward the back, far behind the fighters, and away from Jasper. At his signal, a simple head scratch, she would unleash her powers on the Volturi, but she wanted them to have no opportunity to find and distract her.

Smiling, Alma pulled on the most beat up pair of jeans she owned. She couldn't appear clean and outstanding—Alice had grudgingly suggested the nomad style. An old t-shirt added to the ensemble, and that was it. No shoes, no jewelery, except for a woven bracelet from Seth.

A knock on the door refocused her attention on the present, and Alma turned to find Seth standing in the door, dressed in a pair of sweats. His broad chest was bare, and it took a great deal of restraint not to bury her face there and hide out. Seth seemed, as usual, to sense her apprehension, and he smiled at her. He had the most wonderful smile she had ever seen, and she had to smile back at him.

"Ready?" he asked, leaning against the door frame.

"As I'll ever be." Alma heaved a sigh and stepped forward to wrap her arms around Seth's waist. "Sure we can't just stay in bed all day?"

"Nothing bad's going to happen," Seth said.

"You can't know that."

"True. But I just have this feeling like something's going to happen like it did last time and we'll all be fine." His arms squeezed her for a moment before letting go. "I have to leave. Jake wants us all ready to go at a second's notice, so we're going to phase and just wait it out."

Leaning down, Seth pressed his lips to hers softly and she could feel herself slipping a little. She wanted so badly to press herself against him, make love to him again, stay inside and pretend nothing was wrong...

She couldn't. Her family needed her.

Family...

How strange. She had a family.

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No one was moving. The sound of the rushing wind before the thunderstorm Alice had promised them filled the large clearing, the rapidly cooling air rushing between the vampires, wolves, and hybrids assembled there. The leaves rustled in the trees.

Fear. Nervousness. Apprehension. Annoyance. Blind rage. Excitement.

Glancing to his left, Jasper quickly found the owner of the last emotion. Emmett was tensed for the fight, his eyes bright with expectations. Jasper sighed softly, relaxing a little as Alice took his hand. She leaned close to him, close enough to whisper so that no one else would hear.

"You have to ignore them, Jazz." Her voice was quick and soft, barely more than a brushing of air across his ear. "You have to separate."

"I know." Glancing behind him, his eyes found Alma. She was situated near the rear, and she stood with her hands at her sides, trying to relax. Her blue eyes were downcast as she focused. As far as most of their friends knew, Alma had no special talents—few of them had been made aware of Alma's capabilities. The fewer people who knew the better. Less chance of Aro finding out.

He sent her a little wave of calm, and her head raised. Her blue eyes locked on his, and she smiled at him. A wave of something like protectiveness washed over him, and he was puzzled again.

Alma had been back for a week, and they'd barely spoken. Something had been bothering her, and she had isolated herself from the rest of the family for a few days. Two days ago, he and Alice had returned from hunting with Emmett and Rosalie to find Alma and Seth eating breakfast. Emmett had made some crack about Jasper joining the Volturi if it came to it, and what had briefly flashed from Alma had confused him.

Annoyance. Fear. A strong protective, almost possessive, rush.

Confusing as ever. Like right now. The feeling that she was protective of him. Worried. But she'd hardly spoken to him since coming back—had seemed to avoid him, even.

Trepidation. Fear. Pride. Confidence. Resignation.

Alice's whole body tensed, and out of the corner of his eye, Jasper saw Edward's lips pull back over his teeth in a silent snarl.

The soft _swhish_ of heavy material brushing against the growth in the trees met his ears, and he tensed.

Their numbers were decimated. Half of them had deserted, it was clear from the small number wearing cloaks. Their witnesses were fewer than the Cullens.

None of this disturbed Jasper more than what they carried.

They stopped a hundred yards away from the ranks of the Cullens and tossed the body into the middle. It was a girl, a young woman, with dark skin and black hair.

Rage. Focused, deadly rage.

Nahuel.

Edward realized it at the same time Jasper did, and both of them raced to the boy's side. They each grabbed an arm, fighting him down as Nahuel screamed and snarled. Behind him, his sisters sobbed.

"She had to be punished." Jasper didn't need to look at Caius to know that his face would be smug. So _this_ was their plan. "Raquel was unstable. When we conducted genetics tests on her, we found that the problem was in fact a genetic issue."

Aro stepped forward, his hands outstretched. "It concerns me that anything like this is possible," he said, and his voice was sorrowful, as if this were a great worry, indeed. His feelings of greed and premature triumph gave him away. "A further study must be done. If, indeed, this instability is common, something must be done."

This was nothing they'd planned for, nothing they could have imagined.

Carlisle stepped forward. Determination.

From the back, fear.

"Aro." Carlisle's voice was placating. "Surely this isn't necessary. I knew Raquel," he said, and he glanced at the body of the girl still lying, broken, in the middle between them. "She was much like her father. Any instability on her part could have simply been inherited. And your argument is scarcely valid. Making assumptions that an entire race could be unstable? It's like saying that because one human is diagnosed with an emotional disorder, all of them have to be examined for it."

"Ah, but they are," Aro said, and his lips curled into a smile. "They size each other up. Make notes of little habits. But all of us have little mannerisms that are similar to each other's. Raquel murdered a man in broad daylight, in front of his family. How do we know the capacity for this is not in the others?"

"The capacity is there." Edward's voice was like ice. "Just as it is in you, me, and every creature on the earth. The will, or the desire, is not always there."

Caius's voice snapped like a whip. "Your opinion on this matter is not valid," he barked. "Your judgment is biased and your desires tainted by that to see your child left alone to continue whatever murderous path she chooses. You would say anything to protect her."

Jasper heard Renesmee's whimper, followed by Jacob's growl. The sound distracted Aro, and he glanced over to look at the young woman standing a few feet from Alma.

"Dearest Renesmee, do not fear." Aro took another step forward and smiled simpering at Renesmee. "If nothing is wrong, you will be let go at once. However, if anything _is_ wrong..."

Inner turmoil. Struggle of control.

Alma. Jasper glanced at her, and felt a true surge of fear—not for himself, but for anyone in her way.

Her eyes were glowing again. The blue was almost completely gone, The dark violet, the color completely unique to her, was building. Quickly, he glanced back to the Volturi.

Aro stopped. Behind him, no one in the guard moved. Caius had been reaching up to push back his hood, and his hands were now frozen in place. Jasper felt their panic begin, and he forced calming waves on them before glancing back to Alma.

She had stepped in front of Renesmee now, and her eyes were still black violet. She was smiling, but it was really more of a glare than a smile. The feeling of protection was washing off her again, along with a sense of family and love.

"I don't think you and I have met yet, Aro," she said. Her voice was almost as shocking as her eyes. It was almost gentle, with a persuasive edge to it. He found himself wanting to listen to her, curious to see what she'd say next. "My name is Alma Thomas. I've been dying to meet you for years." Her voice took on an almost saccharine edge to it, and he noticed that, the longer she stared at Aro, the less he had to worry about controlling the vampire's emotions. It was almost like he was being hypnotized by her. "You see, in 1974, I moved to Houston for a while to go to school. I've always had an interest in behavioral science, and I wanted to study some more."

Amazement. Excitement. The urge to laugh in... triumph? Edward looked like he was trying to hide a smile, and Jasper wondered what Alma was doing.

"My name is Dr. Alma Thomas," she said, and her smile turned deadly. "I am a certified, licensed psychiatrist. I've talked to a lot of vampires in the past few weeks with different things to say about you, and meeting you today just proves even more that I really need to psychoanalyze you so I can diagnose you. You're not really the most stable person, and I can't have you running around making sensationalist claims."

She was determined. She was confident.

She was a genius.

And when he looked into her eyes, Jasper knew that she was deadly.

_a/n Sorry if this chapter sucks. It was, for some reason, very hard to write. I did not anticipate that at all. Review or PM me! And write from Jasper's POV. It's kind of fun._


	12. Analyze This

**CHAPTER 12—ANALYZE THIS**

Alma was standing three inches in front of a vampire. She was staring him down, her little smile still on her face as she removed a small recorder from her pocket. Seth felt his insides churning.

_I'm going to need a beer after this_, he thought to himself.

Jacob laughed. _I think I'll join you, kid._

Seth returned his attention to Alma, still a little surprised at the turn of events. This was new information to him. He had no idea she knew anything about the deep workings of the inner mind, but to be honest, it kind of turned him on.

_Jesus, Seth._ Jacob grimaced a little. _Can you _please_ not think of that right now?_

_Says the guy who answered the phone while he was having sex with his girlfriend._

Jacob tried not to think about it, but it slipped out anyway.

_Ew!_ Leah glared across at her younger brother. _Why did you even bring it up, Seth? I did _not_ want to see that! God, you're both so sick._

_Shut up._ Quil's thoughts were a little annoyed. _I think she's starting._

Alma had turned on her tape recorder, and she was smiling at Aro again in that strange, hypnotizing way. "I'm going to release you. If you try to run, though, I'm sure Emmett would like something to do, so I'll send him after you. Do you understand?" Aro didn't move. Alma glanced at Edward. "Does he understand?"

"He understands."

Aro blinked, but kept his gaze locked on Alma's.

"I'm going to ask you some simple questions, and I want you to answer them with your first, gut answer." She gave the recorder a little wave. "I'm going to record this, since I don't trust you not to try to dispute this later on. For the record, this is the psychoanalysis and possible diagnosis of Aro of the Volturi by Alma Thomas."

After that, she was shooting questions off so fast that Seth couldn't see how anyone could answer with anything _but_ their first response. When Aro appeared to think one over, she snapped, "First answer, please!" and the vampire jumped a bit, startled and slightly afraid of her, it seemed.

From where she stood next to Jacob, Renesmee appeared to be relaxing a little. She had moved to sit on the ground next to her husband, and she was snuggled into his leg as Alma continued to rattle off questions.

"I want to go home," she said softly, and Jacob whined. He turned and nudged her shoulder gently before licking up her face. She giggled softly.

Alma's questions continued, ranging in variety from questions about what color Aro thought he was to little situation questions.

Seth sat back on his haunches as the questions rolled on. She really seemed to know her stuff. All of her questions were coming off the top of her head, and they were well phrased. It just made him feel even more insignificant, less deserving of her.

_Shut up, Seth._ Leah smiled over at her brother. _She doesn't deserve you._

_Aw. Brother and sister love each other._

_Quil, I will kill you on the way home if you don't stop it._

"Last one, Aro." Alma's voice was cheery now, but her eyes were still blazing. "Listen to this little story, and see if you can figure out the question at the end.

"At her mother's funeral, a woman meets a man she does not know. She falls in love with him and believes him to be the perfect man—he soul mate. However, she did not ask for his phone number and she did not see him again, no matter how hard she looked. A few weeks later, she killed her sister." Alma looked almost bored, except for her eyes. "What was her motive for killing her sister?"

Aro smiled, and his answer creeped Seth out a little bit. "She expected he'd be at the funeral, of course."

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Edward heard Carlisle inhale sharply and knew that, as a doctor, he knew the answer to this question. He also knew what getting the right answer meant.

Alma had, at this point, been rattling questions off and coming to a vague conclusion. She'd asked this question, not expecting him to get it right, but half wishing he would. Now, she was frozen, staring at Aro with shock. It wasn't his answer that upset her—it was his delivery.

_Has he ever killed anyone?_

The question in Alma's thoughts was directed at him, and Edward was shocked when he saw the answer in Aro's thoughts.

No wonder the answer was so simple.

"You killed your own sister?" Edward blurted out. The shock made it difficult for him to keep the answer in.

Aro's eyes widened. The trance with Alma was broken, and he backed away slightly from her, raising his hands in fear. His guard was still motionless.

"Of course not!" he cried. "What reason would I have to kill my sister?"

Maggie hissed from the back of the line, furious at the lie.

What happened next went almost too quickly for even Edward to see, but Jasper seemed to have anticipated it. Just before Marcus went crashing into Aro, Jasper flitted forward and seized the back of Alma's jeans, lifting her into his arms easily, and pulling her backward and out of harm's way.

Marcus was screaming with rage and agony as he ripped Aro apart, limb from limb. Jasper winced, still clutching Alma, who was staring over his shoulder at the Volturi guard.

_He's in pain,_ Jasper thought, and he seemed to be having a hard time keeping calm. Alma was beginning to feel the difficulty of keeping a panicked and angry group of vampires under control.

"Calm, Jasper," he muttered. "You have to stay calm."

What happened next was the strangest thing Edward had ever witnessed, and also one of the most beautiful.

The clearing was suddenly quiet. The fighting had stopped, although pieces of Aro were still everywhere. Jasper was still holding tight to Alma, who was still staring at the guard, but her hand held tightly to the bare skin of his arm. Where their skin met, there was a visible glowing aura that neither of them seemed to notice. Jasper's eyes were closed, his body relaxed of his own free will.

Alma was relaxing him, but it had a different effect on him than it did on anyone else. Instead of immobilizing him, it allowed him to be completely calmed down, and the effect was seeping into everyone around them. The guard had collapsed under the extreme relaxation, and even Marcus looked much more at ease. Everyone who could move their eyes stared in awe at the pair of them, standing in the middle of the group, the glow growing more and more intense. The clouds that obscured the afternoon sun made it shadowy in the woods, and it was very clear as the glow grew.

If Edward had had any doubts about Alma's parentage before, they were gone now. She truly was Jasper's daughter—his biological counterpart.

As suddenly as it had come on, the calm dissipated. Alma had caught sight of the glow and yanked her hand away before vaulting out of Jasper's arms.

It was quiet for a moment, then...

"What the hell just happened?"

You could always count on Emmett to be blunt.

Jasper, whose eyes had been closed, was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Dude!" Emmett pointed to Alma. "You guys were glowing! It was weird!"

"Strange, indeed," Marcus said softly. He smiled softly, and turned to the Volturi witnesses who still stood, shocked at whatever had just transpired before their eyes.

"My friends," he said, and his voice was so full of awe that Edward could do nothing but pay attention to him. "For several weeks now, I have taken shelter with the Cullen family. While I still do not understand them entirely, spending time with them has opened my eyes to the untapped ability of the hybrids, and I have come to a conclusion that I believe nullifies the... ah... previous genetic argument," he smirked, "presented by Aro.

"Just as any human may be mentally unstable, so may any vampire or hybrid. This girl—" Marcus gestured to Alma. "This girl had spoken to me several times on the issue of Aro's mental stability, and, pending further analysis, she came to the conclusion that he has a form of bipolar disorder. She believes that it is likely a residual disorder, a theory I will explain another time.

"If a vampire is unstable, we remove that one vampire from the group. There has never been any question about this procedure. But do we let the action of one troubled child dictate the treatment of the rest? If we did, there would be none of us left. As such, the judgment of Raquel's instability, whether it was true or not," Marcus said, nodding respectfully toward where Nahuel stood, still visibly upset, "must not bring on a genocide of the hybrids. They are truly the most intriguing creatures I have ever met.

"Nahuel, whose father was an incubus, retains a certain level of charm. Few ladies can resist him, if he truly wises them to desire him." Marcus smiled, and Edward felt a little uneasy as he realized where his thoughts were going. "Renesmee, who can break through any mental defenses and plant her thoughts into the minds of others. A sort of reverse of what her parents do. And now, Alma." Alma, who was trying to sneak away, but couldn't. Marcus wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Her mother was a talented witch from the southern United States, a woman who could hypnotize with her strange colored eyes. Her father was..." Marcus paused, glancing at Alma. Her shoulders were tight, and her mouth was a hard line. "Suffice it to say, her father was a man with influence. She is using the powers she had been born with for good, not for evil. Today, she stopped a fight before it could begin. She maintains the ability to instill fear and peace into others with her curious eyes. She is proof that there is nothing to fear from the presence of these hybrid children."

Alma exhaled, but Edward wished he could tell her that she wasn't off the hook. Jasper's thoughts were churning, massively confused and a little upset. He hadn't figured it out yet, but he was on the right track.

From the back of the Volturi line, one woman, a witness, stepped forward. "I agree with Marcus. I've never found any reason to believe that these children are predestined to cause harm, and I do not believe that is something that Aro or Caius can understand. I do not wish them to lead us any more." She hung her head. "I am ashamed to have been associated with them today."

"Dear Elsie, you could not have known that this outcome would take place." Carlisle reached out a hand to the woman. "No one blames you."

Elsie's head raised, and she smiled at Carlisle.

"This should certainly be discussed while so many of us are present," Garrett said, raising his voice from where he stood so that all could hear him clearly. "I nominate a regime change, if I may." He grinned. "And I believe I have the perfect plan."

And as fifty vampires began to talk excitedly, only Edward, Jasper, and Seth saw Alma, tears running down her face, as she turned and ran into the forest toward home.

_a/n See what happens when I get lots of reviews? I update faster :)_

_That said, I thought this one went better than the last, but you all seemed to like it, so thank you. I had about three drafts of this, and two of them ended violently. It was just a pain to kill people, so I'm pulling a S-Myer and leaving one person in pieces with the rest alive and well. For now._


	13. Famliy

_a/n Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm about to start the end of my collegiate career and I've been crazy busy for the past week or so. Enjoy! Only a little more left…_

CHAPTER 13—FAMILY

Much would remain the same. Aro and Caius would have nothing to do with anything anymore—both had been promptly executed after the decision had been made. Guard members would come and go, now of their own free will. Volterra would remain the main strong hold, but Garret's suggested system of checks and balances would make sure that it would not be the only one. The Denalis and the Cullens would be keeping close track of North America, while Nahuel and the Amazon tribe would keep watch over the south. Marcus and the remaining guard would keep tabs on everything, with special attention to Europe and Asia. If anyone suspected anything, delegates from the guard and the local covens would be dispatched immediately to rectify the situation.

Jasper didn't really care about any of this. His only concern was for the one person who had gone missing. Seth tried to insist that Alma probably wanted her privacy for the moment, but Jasper wanted answers.

What in the _hell_ had happened in that clearing?

He found her easily enough. She'd been right where she could usually be found when she had free time or the urge to hit something. The sound of golf balls being hit with unusual force met his ears as he neared Lake Winnipesaukee. She was situated with a beer bottle wedged into the sand, a golf ball atop the mouth, her usual cigarette held between her fingers. She had changed before she left into frayed jean shorts and an old, faded Astros t-shirt. Her feet were bare, as usual, and she didn't seem to notice him as he approached.

He watched her for a long time, trying to decide what to say first, and as he watched her, really and truly watched her for the first time, he began to notice things about her. Like the familiar way she swung her driver around between hits—the way he toyed with a baseball bat. How her brow puckered a little when she was really concentrating, just in the same place and way as his did. How her hair curled loosely just like his, and how it was the same color.

Then he noticed something he was a little shocked he hadn't noticed before.

It was her earrings, of all things.

_He hadn't been able to do it, yet again stalling up at the last minute and having relations with her, instead. She had performed well, and his lust remained satisfied, while his thirst burned a bit._

_Annette was her name. She was a self proclaimed voodoo witch from Louisiana who had gone west to spread her craft. She was not what he had expected from a voodoo witch at all. She was nothing short of stunning. Her long dark hair fanned out around her as she stared up at him with eyes like violets. She seemed to be trying to hypnotize him—she'd said that was a specialty of hers—and he bit back a laugh at her futile efforts._

"_What are these supposed to be?" he asked, distracting her as he toyed with the odd earrings she wore, fancied from what appeared to be iron._

"_It's the vever of Erzuile," she answered, toying with a lock of her hair. Her eyes twinkled. "She is a spirit of love. She sent you to me tonight, you know. Your friend happened on me at the perfect time."_

_Jasper had rolled his eyes. He was thirsty. It was hard to think straight when she kept smelling so…_

_He'd rolled from her bed and dressed quickly. Behind him, Annette had asked what was wrong._

_Nothing was wrong. He just had to leave as quickly as possible. For some reason, he wasn't sure why, he felt as if by killing her, he would be killing a part of himself._

_He left and never looked back._

"Where did you get those earrings?" The question tumbled from his lips before he could process it, and Alma's head snapped up as she swung, slicing to the side and scaring birds in the tree she dented.

She frowned at him. "Maria gave them to me when I was a kid. She said they were my mother's."

"Do you know what it is?"

Alma shook her head and turned back to her bottle in the sand. Nerves. Fear. Annoyance and a desire to hide… something.

She was saying something, and he processed it vaguely.

"Just that they belonged to my mother," she said again. "I don't remember anything about her at all." Deception?

It just wasn't possible. But Edward's words, just before he'd left the house, came back to him now.

_Be prepared, Jasper. The things she knows will change your life just as much as it has changed hers._

"Can you toss me another beer?" she asked, nodding to the red cooler he was standing next to.

When he opened it, he laughed. It wasn't full of Budwiser, or Corona, or any beer most people would be familiar with.

"You're really a true Texan," he said, chuckling as he tossed her a bottle of Shiner Bock.

"Don't knock it," she said, smiling a little. "You've never had it."

"True," he said thoughtfully, nodding slowly. "Shiner didn't start until after I was changed. Oldest beer in Texas, though."

"Had a hankerin' for it lately," she said, cracking it open and taking a swig. She sighed blissfully. "Like to have had a heart attack when I saw it at the liquor store."

"Can you have a heart attack?"

"Nope. I drink like a fish and smoke like a chimney. Have done since the fifties. Not a thing can kill me, I think." She smiled, and he was jarred again by how much her smile matched his. The way the corners of her eyes crinkled just a bit when she was really lit up.

They were quiet for a while as Alma beat the hell out of a few more golf balls, polished off another beer, and lit up another cigarette. Every once and a while, she would get upset and he would reach out to calm her down. After a while, she raised her eyebrows.

"Watch yourself, Hale," she said, but she was amused. "I'll knock you on your ass."

"I don't think you can."

"Can to." She crinkled up her nose and he could feel the push of her powers. Still, he stood of his own free will, relaxed under her gaze. He grinned as she pushed harder, to no avail. "Why doesn't it work on you?"

Jasper pushed back. "You tell me."

He'd struck the exact nerve he'd needed to. Fear shot through her, despite his attempts at calming her. She _did_ know, and he wanted a straight answer.

"I don't know." Lying again.

Jasper plopped down on the sand behind her, folded his hands behind his head, and leaned against a rock. "I'm just gonna sit here all comfey and wait until you give me an answer that's more useful than a trapdoor on a canoe."

She glared at him, and he tried not to feel just a little nervous when her eyes flashed violet. "You're just an ornery son of a bitch, you know?"

Jasper shrugged, staring up at the darkening sky. There was silence for a moment, then the sound of one last golf ball before Alma, muttering obscenities the entire time, began to pack up her clubs. She threw them angrily, barely missing his head.

"What?" she said angrily as she stood, hand on a popped hip, glaring down at him. Her eyes were slowly turning from electric blue—the same blue his had been—to electric violet. "You're not stupid. Hell, you probably figured it out yourself by now." When he didn't answer, and just continued staring at her, she huffed impatiently. "Stubborn as a mule," she muttered, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"Mules move when properly motivated," he said smoothly, feeling her flare of annoyance at him.

"I don't want to talk about this!" she burst out. She started pacing. "It's not like I've known about it for a long time, or anything." She started yelling about how much she hated Maria, then, and it was with horror that he listened as she vented about her rough upbringing as a spy, a murderer, and a number of other things.

When she started crying, her now blue eyes filling up and spilling over, he got back to his feet and did the only thing he could think of to calm her down.

She fit easily into his arms, and she buried her face in his chest as she sobbed. He reached down and pulled her hand up so that he could hold it, forcing calm onto her. He nearly dropped it a second later.

It was _glowing_. So this had been what Emmett had been talking about.

He watched the faintly golden glow grow as he held a little tighter and pushed a little harder. Soon, it was throbbing and both of them were staring. Alma had finally stopped crying and her bloodshot eyes stared in wonder at their joined hands.

"That's an interesting twist," he muttered, smiling as he felt Alma's push that made the glow brighter.

"Kind of cool," she said, sniffling a little.

Jasper chuckled a little and held the girl who was his a little closer. "Kind of cool," he agreed.

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Jacob folded his hands behind his head as he listened to the sounds of the others moving around in the woods. Without straining his ears, he could hear Bella and Edward growling playfully at each other as they chased each other around the woods in some elaborate mating dance. He could hear Emmett and Rosalie off in the distance, and he tried to ignore that.

He shifted his focus to his wife, lying at his side and staring up at him. She had a strand of his shaggy hair and she was toying with it between two of her elegant fingers. He watched her as she twisted and untwisted it, wove it through her fingers, and finally dropped it just so she could find another loose strand and start again.

"Getting long," Jacob said quietly. A hand pressed to his chest, and he smiled as Renesmee showed him her displeasure at his intentions. She hated it when he buzzed off his hair.

"I'll keep some length to it this time."

_Have Alice do it._ She let go of his hair and rolled so that she rested on top of him, her body lined with his. _She knows just how I like it. Just long enough to do this._ Then she gently grabbed some of his hair near the roots and tugged. She grinned at him and showed him a picture of exactly why she liked his hair a little longer.

She giggled, a delighted sound like music, as he rolled her onto her back. His hands found their way down her sides to her butt, and his fingers curved around her and pulled her completely flush against him again. A little moan escaped from her lips, and he let his lips slide down her neck to her collarbone.

_We're safe._ She didn't seem to be addressing him, just idly thinking. _We're safe, and nobody is going to take me away._

Jacob felt himself shaking a little as he realized how close he'd been to losing her today. Never again, though. He had eternity to be with her.

Her hands traced down his spine as he moved above her, reacquainting himself with her body for the thousandth time, and he moaned softly against the soft flesh of her breast. She seemed to like that—her nails dug a little into his back.

Half an hour later, he was thanking every deity he could think of that Renesmee was as flexible and strong as he was, if not more so. One of her legs was propped up on his shoulder, while the other was bent and resting behind his knee. A pillow rested under her back, propping her up for him while he knelt, knees spread, in front of her. He was buried as far as he could go, and he forced his eyes open again to look down at her glorious face.

Her hair was framing her face, which wore an expression of deepest satisfaction. A small smile tugged at the corners of her open mouth, and when he hit just the right spot, she gasped and moaned her pleasure. Her eyes were glazed over, and she gazed up at him with an unblinking stare.

She was _his_ and no one could take her away from him.

When he finally collapsed on top of her, she was shaking. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and pressed his face into her hair, content to stay where he was for eternity.

_a/n Maybe one more chapter. Maybe…_


	14. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE**

_Two Years Later_

It was a beautiful evening. The setting sun lit the water, making it sparkle. The thirty or so guests were seated on blankets on the beach while the groom bounced nervously on his bare heals. From where he stood just behind the tree line, Jasper could see Alice reaching up to smooth Seth's shirt, fussing over his hair.

"Don't know how I let her talk me into this," Alma muttered, frowning down at her feet. "I'd have been happy to just go to Vegas."

"It's been tried," Jasper said dryly. "Edward and Bella were planning to go to Vegas and get it over with, but Alice guilt tripped them into a real wedding."

Alma sighed heavily and clutched Jasper's arm a little tighter. "Is he okay?" she asked softly.

"He's nervous." Jasper squeezed his daughter's hand. "So are you, for that matter."

"Is it time to go yet?"

"Almost."

Jasper smiled as he watched Alma reach up to touch her unusually elegantly styled hair. Just two years ago, he'd found her, and now he was already giving her away. In a way, it was as heartbreaking as it was heartening.

Two days before Christmas last year, Alma and Seth had come back to New Hampshire with Jacob and Renesmee from Denver, where they had been living in relative normalcy, with one or two little mishaps, for the past year and a half. Seth and Jasper hadn't ever been exceptionally close, so Jasper was a little surprised when Seth had asked Jasper to take a walk with him. Seth's nerves should have made it obvious, but he was nevertheless blind sighted when Seth had asked Jasper for Alma's hand.

"Shouldn't you be asking her that question?" Jasper had joked, trying to hide his shock.

Seth shrugged as if it were obvious. "She would want me to ask you first," he'd said simply. "You're the only real family she has."

He'd been the first person she'd told after Seth proposed. She'd approached him slowly, nervously, one hand hidden behind her back, and she'd nearly broken his heart. Her blue eyes were wide.

"Daddy?" She'd taken a deep breath and spouted in a rush, "Seth asked me to marry him and I said yes and I wanted to see if you'd give me away at my wedding."

It was the first time she'd called him "Daddy," and not "Dad" or just "Jasper." He'd nearly melted into a mushy puddle on the floor.

Now, six months later, he was working to keep from turning into that puddle again.

She tugged on his sleeve, and he stared down at her. "Do I look alright?"

"Alright" was not a word he would find it appropriate to describe her today. Her blonde curls were back out of her face, and portions were braided and resting over the rest, which hung in shining honey waves down her back, and daisies tucked here and there. She wore a simple white sleeveless dress that flared out slightly from her waist, stopping just a few inches above her ankles. She wore the diamond and sapphire earrings he'd gotten her for Christmas (on Alice's sly suggestion) and no shoes. She clutched a bouquet of daisies in her free hand.

She was absolutely perfect.

But to answer her question...

"No," he said honestly. "You look absolutely stunning."

Alma blushed and Jasper tightened his fingers around hers. "Ready?"

She took a deep breath and nodded.

Slowly, they walked out of the trees and toward where Seth stood next to Jacob, Renesmee, and Emmett, who had proclaimed himself the officiator of the ceremony two months ago when Alice had seen Maria attacking the minister in a vision.

Emmett seemed to be working hard to hide a grin when he asked, "Who gives this woman to be married?"

Jasper exhaled sharply. "I do," he said gruffly.

Just when he was getting ready to let her go, she tugged his arm again and wrapped her arms around his waist. He held her for a long moment, kissing the top of her head.

"Don't cry," he murmured, feeling the hot damp against his loose linen shirt. "Your make up will run and Alice will attack your face again."

Alma choked out a laugh, and he saw Alice roll her eyes.

"Love you," she whispered.

"Love you, too," he said, and he put her hand in Seth's.

"You hurt her," he said softly, "and I'll rip you to shreds."

Seth grinned his happy-go-lucky grin. "Not a chance," he said. "She's safe with me."

It was over so quickly Jasper could hardly believe the ceremony had taken twenty minutes. The next thing he knew, Emmett was proclaiming Seth and Alma legally bound before their witnesses. Jasper had a son in law, and on his left, Edward chuckled.

"You won't get used to the idea any time soon," Edward said, rolling his eyes.

"Didn't think so." Jasper heaved a sigh and tugged Alice closer when she wrapped an arm around his waist. "Think she'll still come to visit?"

"Renesmee does," Edward said. "I don't think they go _that_ on their own."

"I hope not."

_a/n SOMEBODY requested a sequel, and I think I can do it. Just give me a little time to make some life adjustments. The next one's going to take place in the two years I skipped. The idea is that Jake, Ness, Alma, and Seth all head off to stake their own claim in the world, and it focuses on the hijinks and shenanigans they get up to. Should be fun and fluffy. R/R with any suggestions for said shenanigans..._


End file.
